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AN EPITOME OF TEXAS HISTORY FROM THE FIX.!- 

BUSTERING AND REVOLUTIONARY ERAS TO 

THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE REPUBEIC. 

FROM MOST APPROVED SOURCES. 



IN ONE VOLUME 

EI.ABORATEI.Y II.I.USTRATED 
BY /' 

WILLIAM H. BROOKBR 



♦'Thermopylae had her messengers of defeat; the Alamo had 
none." — Anon. 

^xX^''- f"^ ^n^*o?? ^° ^'^^^ ^^*^' ^^^^- ^^ ^^" i« Oft interred 
with their bones."— ;S;iaA;€.spearc. 

Now let loose the dogs of war, 

Let pandemonium reign, 
Posterity will mark the spot /''^^^ ^'^'^^^.- 

Where such heroes are slain. " -%fi^ ' ?* ' " ' • 



COLUMBUS, OHIO 

Press of Nitschee Brothees 

1897 



^ 



Entered according to act of Congress in tbe Librarian's Office, 

at Washington, D. C, by W. H. Buookd:?, July, 1897. 

Copyrighted. 






To 

Ti^e mctrjofy of tt?® bt-ave defet^dzta of tt^e fllanio af)d 
Collad, to evei'y patfiot utl^o sUpporteol aftiis lii be^ 
l^alf of tl7C Ii7depei7<ilef7Ge of Texas, ftotrt evety iai^ol 
ai^d cllfpe, afjd tl7elf postct'lty ovef tlrje bfoad don 
irjali) ; I17 toket) of tlrjc t)ef olc deeds of daf it)^ 1*7 tt7e 
l^oafs of peril, tt)is Yolixnie is fespectfixlly ai^d tetjw 
defly ii^sct'ibed by tl^e aatl70i'. 




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PREFATORY STATEMENT. 



The kaBtilj oonceived ideas which brought out thia work, 
perhaps, would need no apologies for errors in the results, if the 
circumstances of the production were understood by the reader. 
ITiis is a recital, in the main, of the chivalrous deeds of those 
who gave to Texas, Independence and her vast domain, during 
the revolutionary period of the country, being an epitome of 
those thrilling times and scenes of carnage and woe. Many 
data of civil history are omitted to give litheness to the book, 
making it truly a "Souvenir" volume, which was the fi.r9t aim 
of the author. 

San Antonio, Texas, July 4, 189Y. 




PORTAL oh MlbSloN i>AN dubh. 



GHAPTER I. 



Thoughts on the First Settlers of Mexico— The Taltecs— Mound Builders 
—The Aztecs— Flight of the Taltecs— Their Fate— Rise and Fall of 
The Aztecs— Their Customs and Worship — The Advent of the Span- 
iard—The Conquest— The Cayaliers— The Mexican — The Crusade 
of the Jesuite Fathers— The Missions, Their Use and Decay— De- 
scription. 

Wlien the achievements and valor of a people are recorded 
in any great struggle, against contending forces, a history of the 
foe should be given to add lusteo- to the cause, for on the con- 
tract of valor is glory won, and the conquest of arms made chiv- 
alrous. 

In speaking of these things, only an epitome of such history 
can here be given. We are taught that Adam was the first 
man, and all the nations of the earth were peopled from the 
Ark of Noah, after the flood. 

"We are constrained to take these statements as true, though 
often met in the pathway of science, given by geologists and 
archaeologists with contrary views; yet all assertion needs proof, 
and as the first stands on a plane of veracity endowed by prophets 
and ages, we cannot cavil the justness of their sayings. 

When the great navigator set sail in search of the new v/orld 
more than four centuries ago, he little divined that he would 
find strange people when his vessels might land. But the great 
mariner was astonished when confronted with multitudes of 
human beings engaged in all the arts of government, agricul- 
ture, fine arts and legerdemain, met his gaze. The warrior was 
panoplied in grand array. 

7 



Two strange people had met; one could give no account of 
the other's origin. To believe one was supernatural was easy 
to conceive bj the more rustic class; while the other was iu 
wondei*s bound, on researches bent. Walled cities were behell 
with great citadels, and in them worshipped millions of souls 
at a shrine they believed divine; in a manner solemn to the 
law's demand; in a custom hideous and barbaric in the exti-erae. 

Here the Temples to the Sun were found, in which the mul- 
titudes worshipped the god of day and offered human sacrifices 
to appease hisi burning zeal, till more than three millions of 
human lives v/ere slaughtered on the altar of their god to sooth 
his wanton wrath. 

From whence did the worshippers come? 

Wo mortal has ever answered. The archaeologist has been 
lost in the researches, and no answer comes from his feeble plod- 
ding. 

The philosopher pales before the realm of thought, and lets 
the dark ages roll over his reverie with becoming silence; yet 
man was made in the image of his Cl-eator, and only differs from 
man "as one star differeth from another in glory," 

Man everywhere and at all times has the same propensities , 
he loves and hates; he builds and destroys; he wars on his fellow- 
man till well nigh the ground has been drenched in human 
blood and the earth made a catacomb. We are told that the Tal- 
tecs were the first to settle the beautiful valleys of Central 
Mexico, and cultivated the fertile lands therein many centuries 
before the landina: of Columbus on the shores of the new world; 
and builded the citadels and performed the functions of govern- 
ment; and became a great and warlike people. But the history 
of their origin is as opaque as the moon-stone which once adorned 
their temples. Even before the Taltec made his intrepid march 
to the land of the dazzling sun, the hills and cliffs were ten- 
anted by a race of cliff dwellers with which the archaeologist 
and historian can only dwell in theory. At any rate, he builded 

8 




WINDOW OF MISSION SAN JOSt. 



ills home with an object of self-pre.^cv.'vaiion, ''tlio fii>;t iaw of 
mature," against marauding man. From what age in ajitiquitj 
he sprung we are left to conjecture; or whether from primeval 
man, is not known. The relics of hi^ once happy home are to be 
l>e found in lower California, throughout Western and Cen- 
tral Mexico. 

His origin, habits and arts belong to the unknown quantity 
in the mathematical problem of man. Perhaps long before the 
Ayrian gave his ciphers to the Egyptian school boy, or long 
anterior to the time when tlie wolf gave nurse to the two found- 
lings on the Tiber, who in after years played pantomime warriors 
over the miniature walls of a still more diminutive Rome, the war- 
like races were enjoying their supremacy in the Occident, and 
masters of all the lands from the mountains to the sea. Follow- 
ing the receding tide of the cave dwellers, we watch the ad- 
^'ancing steps of the Taltecs, in the great cities that were planned 
and built, into the haunts of commerce and agriculture, till the 
realm of its domain was regal in all of its proportions. Alas! 
Babylon had its season of freshness, prosperity and decay. The 
mighty Thebes and Memphis, with their hundred gates, went 
down before the advancing steps of time- — the.despoiler of all 
greatness. So with the Taltecs. Their sun had risen in pros- 
perity, went to its zenith in glory, and set behind a waning shore. 
"How the mighty have fallen!" "Oh, Tempora! Oh, Mores." 
The gods seem to have frowned on their destinies; and so pass- 
eth the glory of the world. 

Another cloud rises over the distant plains; a host comes 
with mighty tread and glittering array; the march of armies 
with a multitude. Surely it is not some wandering tribe from 
Moses and Aaron crossing the Red Sea, nor the clamor of the 
murmuring Israelites fleeing from the hosts of an Irate Pha- 
raoh?* 

* It is a remarkable fact that the features, physiognomy and classic 
mould of the inhabitants of Guadalajara, Mexico, are of similar type 
to the Jewish race, where found on the globe. 

9 



The advance goes on, the clash of helmets come, the spear 
\>uts to route the Taltec kings, who, fleeing southward, go into 
the rich lands of Central America, where they erect towns, build 
cities and place their helmets and coat of arms on immortal stone ; 
and carve their hieroglyphics thereon, and lie down and die, a 
totally extinct nation, a lost tribe, and forgotten race. 

But the stones and monuments at Uxmal and Pelanque tell 
the story where once they rested in their flight from the Aztecs. 
From whence the Aztec came, no historian has ever told; no ar- 
chaeologist divined the trace of his origin. Yet we are told he 
came from the "North," and in his onward march annihilated 
the cliff dwellers and put to flight the still more warlike Taltecs. 
When victoi-y perched on their advancing banners, and the rich 
conquest came under absolute domain, they began a higher 
state of agriculture, became workers in iron and copper, erected 
great walled cities with flaming citadels, crowned their bliss in 
magnificent temples to the sun. Fawning, at the feet of kings, 
built the Halls for the Montezumas, and crowned them supreme 
rulers of the realm. Thus they lavished their reign in luxury, 
crowning their kings "with gold and capping the towers of their 
temples with precious stones. They were given up to worship 
and debauchery till the conquering hero came: — 

The intrepid Spaniards, under the leadership of Cortez and 
Pizzaro, covered the land of the Azi^o. kings under a despotic 
conquest, stripping the Inchas of all their gold and regal wealth, 
driving the kings from power, destroying their vast halls and 
temples, annihilating the custom of sun worship; and hoisting 
over the citadels the cross of the Saviour of man, in the name 
of the King of Spain, and began the conquest of Mexico. 

About this time in the centuries there occurred a war in 
Fngland known as "the war of the roses." In that .<rreat and 
sanguinary conflict the followers of the vanquished house of 
Stuarts fled into Spain. The fresh news of such rich conquests 
in the "New World" caused many of the fleeing cavaliers to 

10 




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seek refuge in the land of the Monteznmas, and make their 
abode there, intermingling their race with the Aztec blood, en- 
grafted in the new land a new race and a new religion ; and thus 
the Aztec became a worshipper under the cross, under the laws, 
rules and customs of Castile. And thus the Aztec was in a man- 
ner metamorphosed into a Mexican, and under his rule the dy- 
nasties of Mexico have had their origin and perturbed existence, 
the government often changing as many as three times a year.* 
Under this new order of things, the Mexican began his march 
under Spanish leadership to the conquest of the Indian tribes 
on the north, who were mound builders, and totally distinct from 
other tribal races that inhabited the Western Hemisphere, with 
different modes of life, warfai'e and worship. This movement 
was headed by the San Friscan friars and Jesuit "fathers," 
who, with the cross in one hand, the sword in the other, carried 
the Bible of the "Holy Jesus," and planted it on the banks of 
every stream of running water from the citadel of New Spain 
to the flowing fountains of the clear stream, which they called 
after one of the departed saints, San Antonio; and there, along 
this most beautiful stream, meandering amid live oaks and ver- 
nal growth, erected their monasteries and beeran the conquest of 
the wandering Indian tribes by educating them under the mys- 
teries of the cross and Holy See. In the latter part of the six- 
teenth century, these same monkish "fathers" began erecting 
a series of "missions" or monasteries, which were fashioned after 
a plan of ancient architecture, on the plane of the Roman Cross. 
The construction of these ancient missions was out of stone and 
mortar; massive walls more than four feet thick, barricaded 
doors and windows to resist any ordinary attack from outside 
foes. Each mission was provided with dark chambers, in which 
-the "fathers" kept the lamps burning eternal, and in which 



* Of the 10,000,000 of inhabitants in Mexico, about 1,000,000 are 
Spanish blood; about 2,500,000 mixed with the Aztec race. The balance 
are of pure Aztec and other Indian tribes. 

11 



the recalcitrant Indian paid the penalties for disobedience 
to ecclesiastic laws, and paid penance for "not paying tithes/' 
'J'he first one of these missions toward the source of tiie San 
Antonio river is the "Alamo" (or popular church), a frowning 
mass of stone which has withstood the ravages of time and bat- 
tering shells of contending foes, and stands out to-day the silent 
monument, grim, gloomy and peculiar, of all the horrors that 
were ever committed there. Perhaps the "Te Deum" have 
a reverberating sound in the ears of the Most High, to atone for 
some acts of violence perpetrated in its siacred precincts. A 
short description of this old mission may not be out of place 
liere, as basic scenery to the grand drama performed there 
later on, and more fully described in another chapter. 

The walls are built of heavy stone and mortar, more than 
four feet thick, on the plan of the Roman Cross, 112 feet long 
and 65 feet front; with front door arched, six feet wide, seven 
feet high, the only door in the building opening outwards. The 
windows are few, small and frowning, with heavy iron grating as 
the only pretext for shades. Dirt floor. Archway across the 
main auditorium near front door, over which a gallery was made 
for the choir in the times when priestly worship was had. The 
wall run up square, 24 feet; roof flat. The front mounts up- 
ward ten feet above main walls. The front is finished in heavy 
moulding pilasters, alcoves and workmanship of many designs. 
For ages the saints who died near by were buried beneath the 
floor, and lie there undisturbed. The rich valley of the San 
Antonio river gave much promise in the vast products of the 
fertile soil. ^\Tien the settlements grew to great proportions, 
then the "fathers" began to prepare more room for the worship- 
pers, and built another "mission" about one and a half miles 
below the "Alamo," near the banks of the river, and called it 
"[^ Purissima C-oncepcion," which mission is in a good state 
of preservation till this day, and in which the priests hold occa- 
sional services. Three miles further down the San Antonio 

12 



river, on the west aide, is tli€ great San Jose Mission, the largest 
one ever constructed on the north side of the Rio Grande. 

This mission received the greatest attention of the architects 
and the ''priests," for now in the tumbled-down decay the frown- 
ing figures adorning the leaning front speak in mute cadences 
the grandeur of departed time, and seem to beg: "Why they 
are left to mouldering decay ?" This mission has fast fallen intO' 
decay, and but one room in it used for any purpose — that kept 
locked by priests — in which they keep their relics of departed 
greatness. 

Two miles further down, on the east bank of the San An- 
tonio river, is Mission San Juan, with less pretentiousness, lest 
it be in rude decay. In this old chapel is kept in sacred memory 
the ancient Bible once used there; and the crucifix on the open 
pages — indicating some kindly care while time ravages. Then 
comes, a few miles further down the river, Mission "Espada," 
formerly of no great pretentions, now in total ruins. 

The last n)iseion on the beautiful river is at *'La Bahia,"' 
Goliad, in whi(?h (^olonel Fanner and his brave followers took 
refuge for defense, and when captured were so cruelly massa- 
cred by the Mexican soldiers by order of their commanders, 
which will be noted in another chapter. 

When one views these old missions of the monks, and sees 
what gTaudeur once marked the advance of the Roman Cross 
under pressure of the "priests" and Pope, he is left to exclaim : 
"0, Time! O, Ruins!" What vestal virgin watched over these 
in their purity and growth ! What vandal hand sowed the seed 
of discord that brought on decay ! Must all greatness so shortly 
endure? Will our giant edifices so soon be turned into the 
haunts of the sloth, the bat and the owl, while the angel of death 
and destruction flaps his sable wings over the grave of our dead 
greatness? When we sit amid the ruins of Pompeii and Her- 
culaneum, we can then well recall the mysteries which surround 
the blast of destruction in the land of the New World. If 

13 



priest be false his teachings are blighting. The God from Sinai 
and from the Cross may lead in mysterious ways! 

Teach us, Oh, Thou of Sinai's fame, 

The sweetness of Calvary's lays ; 
Hear him who Divinity would know, 

Direct the plodding sinner in paths to go. 

These old miasions were built under the auspices of the 
Roman Pontificate, on lands granted to the bishops by the crown 
of Spain. These grants were for large tracts of land surround- 
ing the missions, and non-revertible to the crown. So the old 
missions, with large amounts of land around them, belong to 
the Catholic Church, and owned and controlled by the bishops 
of the Diocese of Texas, on which no tax, either state or munici- 
pal, is laid or collected. The "Alamo" Mission was, by act 
of the Texas Legislature about twelve years ago, bought from 
the Catholic bishops of San Antonio, paying $20,000 there- 
for. ISFow the title to the same is in the State of Texas, and the 
care of the old mission is in charge of the mayor and city council 
of San Antonio, who appoint the custodian and look after the 
care of the premises. 

The waters of the beautiful San Antonio river gush forth 
from the bowels of the earth about three miles northwest of the 
Alamo, and flow meandering through the beautiful city of San 
Antonio, forming many picturesque scenes. An old ditch con- 
veying water from the head of the river, cut by the old Span- 
iards for irrigation in the labors and gardens below, runs just 
in rear of the Alamo building, touching the wall. 



14 




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CHAPTER II. 



Brief History of Texas — Divided Into Eras — The Mission Era — Filibus- 
tering Era — The Bra of Revolution — Cohahuila and Texas Coloniza- 
tion of Same — Grovemment of Mexico Under First Emperor — Itur- 
bide — Results — Then Under Constitution of 1824 — Revolutions in 
Mexico — Rise of Santa Anna, His Dictatorship — Stephen F. Austin, 
His Colonization and Career in Texas — The Invasion of Texas by 
Armed Mexican Soldiers— The Resistance of the Colonists — Con- 
flicts With Soldiers — Bowie and His Brother — The Struggle at the 
Siege of San Antonio de Bexar — Death of Milam — Surrender of Cos 
— Evacuation of Texas by Mexican Forces. 

Under the rule of the Spanish crown for two centuries 
and more, the Mexican people had taken on a superior order of 
civilization to what their immediate ancestry possessed. We 
might class Texas under the following heads in brief: Era of 
discovery when De Long first touched her shores, 1685, era of 
missions, 1690-1789; era of filibusterers, 1789-1821; era of col- 
onization, 1821-1836; era of revolution, 1821-1836, era of Re- 
public, 1836-1845; era of state, 1845-date. Much can be said 
of Texas under each headline here marked out. We will be 
pardoned for dealing with the principal ones under the revolu- 
tionary period, leaving the reader to follow up other researches 
as inclination leads, but a mere reference to other times may not 
be out of place. In the mission era among the Mexicans, lit- 
erature and the arts were pursued by many of the wealthy 
classes. Mining had taken an advanced step among the nations. 
The military incentive of the leaders had advanced with the 
crowned heads of Europe, and while the government changed 

15 



rulers often, it rarely ever changed in form, from a nriilitary 
despotism. 

The Bill] of Pope Alexander VI, which bestowed on Fer- 
dinand and Isabella all the countries which they might discover 
west of a given latitude, was the authority on which the Span- 
ish monarchs claimed the most valuable portion of the Ameri- 
can continent as their personal property. From the crown pro- 
ceeded all grants of land, and if they failed from any cause, to 
the crown they again reverted. As monarch of the Indies, the 
king was unchecked in his reign. The Catholic church, al- 
ways a factor in political formulas of government, held power- 
ful sway at the courts of Catholic Europe. In domineering 
the sway over the Western Continent, the dogmas of the priests 
were translated into the sign of authority, and the Divine wrath 
was invoked on all who disobeyed and church anathemas were 
hurled at those who followed after strange doctrines. The 
priests and friars had kept up the clan of the crown in the old 
missions established for a hundred years; and kept installed in 
the faith the hordes of Indians which had been taught at the 
altar. But with all the wealth of the crown, the rigid discipline 
of the monks, the "Te Deum" was hushed in the old missions. 
Their walls were given to decay, and silence of oblivion began 
its eternal reigTi among the ruins of departed gi'eatness. 

For more than 250 years the land had been under the 
Spanish yoke. All interests had to obey the mandates of the 
king. 

When Napoleon led his victorious legions into Spain in 
1810, and led captive the king and royal household, the spirit 
of unrest in the Western land began, and the tyranny of the 
Spanish viceroys in New Spain led the people on to revolt. The 
cause of the oppressed was fostered by Don Miguel Hidalgo Cas- 
tilla, who was the rectoral cura of Dolores, a town in the inten- 
dency of Guanajuato, w^ho led his parishioners in the revolt 
against Vanegas, the viceroy of Spain. In September, 1810, he 

16 



took the field for "the defense of religion and the redress of 
wrongs." 

His first attempt at arms was successful. On the 29 th of 
September he captured the city of Guanajuato, containing 80,000 
inhabitants, with public funds amounting to over five million 
dollars. Thus equipped with munitions and flushed with suc- 
cess, Hidalgo started his march to the city of Mexico. 

Halting between two opinions on his way, and not obeying 
the request of his military leader, Allende, who urged the forced 
march into the city, he beat a sudden and hasty retreat, and was 
finally captured and carried to Chihuahua and shot, with all the 
companions of his flight. Thus perished in 1811 the first Mex- 
ican revolutionary leader. 

In these struggles Hidalgo and his followers appealed to the 
worst passions of their Indian confederates, who committed the 
most atrocious excesses, slaughtering every European Spaniard 
that fell into their hands, and frequently not sparing the na- 
tives. And often the black flag of annihilation was hoisted over 
the vaulting legions of success. It is said that Calleja, the Span- 
ish commander, eclipsed Hidalgo m the horrors of massacre. To 
avoid the waste of ammunition he cut the throats of the de- 
fenseless populace of Guanajuato, until the principal fountain 
of the city literally overflowed with blood. These successive 
ebbs and flows of revolution were carried on energetically for 
a period, with little abating in the horrors of war till the war 
between America and Great Britain in 1812. When in the 
latter part of that year Don Jose Alvarez de Toledo, who had 
been a member of the Spanish cortes from Mexico visited the 
United States, and in conjunction with Don Bernardo Gut- 
tierez, then at Washington in the capacity of agent from the 
Mexican revolutionary authorities, devised a plan for invading 
the eastern internal provinces of New Spain, by the aid of Ameri- 
can auxiliaries. 



17 



Tlie ostensiWe coimnand was given to Guttierez, as a Mex- 
ican, but the real command of the enterprise was entrusted to 
Colonel Magee, who for the puxopse of undertaking it, resigned 
his commission in the United States army. Amnog the officers 
who joined the expedition were Kemper, Lockett, Perry and 
Ross, brave and ardent spirits to whom the excitement of mili- 
t'ary adventure was iiTesistibly attractive. 

In a short time the invading force mustered about two hun- 
dred strong, a]] of them in, the season of youthful daring, and 
mostly tlie sons of respectable families in Kentucky, Tennessee, 
Mississippi and Louisiana. Magee marched his band towards 
'I'exas, and was joined by others from all sections, till his forces 
numbered over five hundred determined men. In their first 
encounter with the Mexican troops at isFacogdoclies, Texas, the 
l.lexicans fled at the first well-directed fire. 

Magee, flushed with his success, pressed on to La Bahia, or 
Goliad, and occupied it without resistance on the 1st of Novem- 
ber, 1812. In the meantime Magee died, and the command fell 
on Kemper^ who on the 10th of July following, led his followers 
against the besieging Mexicans, who outnumbered Kempei'^s 
forces five to one, and after several hours' hard contest in the 
open field the Mexicans fled, leaving between three and four 
hundred of their men on the field dead. The Americans lost 
two killed and thirty wounded. The Mexicans then beat a hasty 
retreat to the Salado, en route to San Antonio de Bexar, where 
the Mexicans were reinforced by 1200 men under Salcedo, with 
six pieces of artillery. The contest was a fierce and decisive one. 
Select riflemen under Lockett shot down the Mexican artillerists 
and seized the cannon, while Kemper on the right and Ross on 
the left soon put the enemy to rout with, a loss of 400 killed, a 
greater number wounded and seventy-five taken prisoners. The 
loss to the Americans were nine killed and thirty-five wounded. 
Forty-five hundred head of horses were captured by the Ameri- 
cans. 

18 



Kemper pressed forward, and on the 1st of April, 1813, 
entered San Antonio de Bexar and captured the whole Mexican 
force, amounting to eight hundred men. Guttierez was elected 
the Goveraor of Bexar, assisted by a council of thirteen. This 
tribunal proceeded to try by court martial the fourteen chiefs 
who commanded in the Mexican army, and condemned them to 
death and had them secretly executed; and for this abhoiTent 
crime against civilized warfare. Colonel Kemper and m.any of 
his best men abandoned the service. In 1821, February 24, Dan 
Augustin Iturbide, surrounded by his followers, was declared 
Emperor by them, which led the youn,of Emperor into many acts 
of violence and excesses, and he was in a short time dethroned, 
and a cortes established for the government of the new realm 
torn from the Spanish king. In these times many adventurers 
from the United States had landed expeditions in the coast in- 
terior of Texas, and many daring exploits by land and sea caused 
their rendezvous on Galveston land to be termed the "Pirate 
Isle." 

A recital of their exploits and the events of the times is very 
interesting to most readers. Prior to the reign of Iturbide, 
Moses Austin, a former merchant of New York, as empresario, 
had contracted with the Alcaldes and chief officers of the crown 
to colonize 300 families in the lower country of Texas, during 
the turmoil of the border and the unstable conditions of the 
transitory reigns of government, enduring many privations and 
hardships to establish his colony. Moses Austin, being of ad- 
vanced years, died, and left tbe faithful carrying out of his con- 
tract to his son, Stephen E. Austin, who bravely came to the 
full discharge of his father's undertaking, and after much vex- 
ation and tribulation, he established the Austin colony on the 
Brazas river, between that stream and the Colorado, and filled 
it with many hardy denizens of the soil. 

Under the constitution of the Mexican colonies, adopted 
October, 1824, in which each state was guaranteed a full repub- 

19 



lican form af government, Cohahuila and Texas were made a 
Kok state under the Mexican constitution, with the seat of gov- 
ernment at Cohahulia, where all the legislative assemblies met 
and enacted laws. The government of the Mexican nation, 
under the laws established for colonization, provided "to pro- 
tect the liberty, property and civil rights of all for-^^-igners who 
profess the Roman Catholic religion, the established religion of 
the empire." * This same law was engrafted into the coloni- 
zation laws of Cohahuila and Texas, March, lf^^*5, and under 
this stringent law all the colonists coming to Texas had to sub- 
mit to the rule of the church hierarchy, subject their children 
to be sprinkled by the priests, and pay tithe? to the church. 
Whether they prayed or swore in silence is not recordc^l, but the 
priest was the spiritual adviser of the family as, long as citizenship 
lasted. I'his was irksome to most of the colonists who came iuto 
I'exas from the United States on the north with the Austin move- 
ment, besides large numbers of families who came in under other 
ompresarios. 

On May 21, 1834, by an act of the legislature of Cohahuila 
and Texas, this obnoxious law was repealed and protection was 
offered to the person and property of every settler, whatever ma}'' 
be his religion. Under the liberal colonization laws thus put 
into force, it was hard to repress the invincible tread of the 
-Vnglo-Saxon, whose march has always led on to victory, to pros- 
perity — the elevation of man. The great inflmx of the colonists 
from the north with their independent ideas of republican form 
of government, and their form of worship under the Christian 
religion, was a menace to the Mexican population of Cohahuila on 
the west bank of the Rio Grande; that part of the state was more 



* "When the news of La Salle's invasion reached Mexico, the vice- 
roy, the Marquis de Monclova, held a council of war in obedience to a 
royal decree issued by Phillip II, enjoining the extermination of all 
foreigners who should dare penetrate the Gulf of Mexico." (Kenedy's 
His. Tex., Vol. 1, Page 27.) 

20 




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populous, and held all the iinportaDt offices and a large majority 
of the legislature of the State of Cohahuila and Texas, and to 
further harass and disturb their neighbors, the nevv comers in 
Texas, the government granted large tracts of land all along 
the southern border of Texas, encircling the boundaries of the 
American colonists. This wholesale granting the public domain 
away to unscrupulous empresarios, was an act which the colonists 
followers of the cross have either been tyrannical rulers, or fawn- 
ing henchmen, to do their master's will. So those put in author- 
ity to govern the American colonists in Texas were tyrants with 
a bloody cast, and many acts towards the settlers by these mili- 
tary satraps became so offensive that open revolt was made by 
tlie colonists, and often clash of arms was resorted to for relief 
from tyranny. 

In 1832 the farmers, armed to resist oppression, attacked the 
Mexican forces at Anahuac and Fort Velasco, under command 
of Colonel Piedras and Lieutenant Colonel Ugartechea, who held 
some of the colonists prisoners under the most flimsy pretexts. 
One of these was Wm. B. Travis, who afterwards perished in the 
Alamo. John Austin and W. C. Hall led the Texans in the 
various attacks, and liberated the prisoners. The attack on Foi"t 
Velasco on June 26, 1832, by 112 Texans under John Austin 
was a heroic struggle. Eleven Texans were killed and fifty-two 
wounded. Of the 125 Mexicans who formed the garrison, one- 
half were killed and seventeen wounded. 

Mexico at this time was in the throes of revolution. Santa 
Anna was the coming light, though he professed avowed allegi- 
ance to the Constitution of Mexico, as published under the plan 
of Vera (^ruz in the beginnine,- of 1832, which was a movement 
on popular and constitutional grounds against Bustamente and 
his arbitrary encroachments. Pedraza, who had been ejected 
from the presidential chair and banished, was recalled. After a 
struggle of nearly a year, with much bloodshed, Bustamente, 

21 



depressed by defeat and tlie death of his favorite general, Teran, 
proposed an armistice to Santa Anna. Pedraza was to be re- 
ceived as constitutional president, bj virtue of election of 1828, 
and the armies of both parties should unite in support of the 
Federal Constitution. 

This compact the Mexican congress refused to ratify. The 
rival chiefs bid defiance to the congress and installed Pedraza as 
president on 26th December, 1832, who served out the remainder 
of his term, to 1st of April, 1833, when he was succeeded by 
General Santa Anna, who entered the capital on 15th of May, 
1833. 

The same centralist usurpation of the constitutional pre- 
rogative by Bustam.ente, was again recognized and established 
by the new administration. 

When Santa Anna had intelligence of the Texans rising to 
arms in their own defense, ho believed their intent was separation 
from Mexico, and dispatched against them Colonel Mexia, who 
sailed from the mouth of the Rio Grande on 14th July, 1833, 
with five vessels and 400 men. 

Stephen F. Austin, then a representative from Texas in 
the state legislature of Cohahuila and Texas, embarked with 
Mexia. On 16th July the fleet anchored off the entrance of the 
Brazos. 

Mexia sent an official letter to the Alcalde of the second 
department of Austin's colony (John Austin), who, in reply, 
detailed the late events in Texas, and the motives of the colonists 
in appealing to arms. He said : "We are farmers, and not sol- 
diers, therefore desire that the military commandants shall not 
interfere with us at all. Since 1830 we have been oretty much 
governed militarily, and in such a despotic manner that we were 
finally driven to arms, to resist within their limits the militarv 
subalterns of the r;eneral government. We have not insulted the 
flag of our adopted country, as had been surmised from our first 
movements, but on the contrary, we have sustained its true dig- 

22 



mty, and attacked those who outraged it, by using it as a pre- 
text for their encroachments upon the constitution and sovea-- 
eignty of the State of Cohahuila and Texas, and as a cover for 
their baseness and personal crimes. * * * Therefore we at- 
tacked Fort Velasco on 26th of last month with 112 farmers, 
hastily collected, without discipline and badly armed, and after 
an obstinate and bloody engagement of eleven hours, it sur- 
rendered, on the terms expressed in the enclosed copy of the 
capitulation, every article of which has been strictly complied 
with on our part, besides furnishing the provisions needed fox- 
the troops." 

A strong feeling was now impressed upooi many of the 
American colonists that without the possession of full and inde- 
pendent powers of local government, their social progress must 
be grievously retarded, and their rights exposed to constant in- 
vasion from contending factions and their ambitious chiefs. 

So, with matters in view, a convention of the people was 
called to meet at San Filipe de Austin in October, 1832, for the 
purpose of memorializing the supreme government against in- 
vidious laws, and the harsh rules of the military chiefs, and hence 
the people desired a constitution for Texas, an independent mem- 
ber of the Mexican Federation, but entirely severed from Coha- 
huila. 

Securing to themselves the right of trial by jury and the 
privilege of "Habeas Corpus," a constitution embodying these 
matters was framed and adopted, with a petition to the general 
government expressive of these sentiments, and a desire to be 
free and independent of Cohahuila and all entangling alliances. 

The petition was quite lengthy, but read in part as follows: 
"Our misfortunes pervade the whole territory, operate on the 
whole population, and are as diversified in character as our public 
interests and necessities are various. Texas at large feels and 
deplores an utter destitution of the common benefits which have 

23 



usually accrued from the worst system of mtefm&l government 
that the patience of mankind ever tolerated. 

"She is virtually without a government, and if she be not 
precipitated into aO the horrors of anarchy, it is only because 
there is a reclaiming spirit among the people which infuses a 
moral energy into the fragments of authority that exist among 
us. * * * We complain more of the want of all the im- 
portant attributes of government than of the abuses of any. 

"There are some impressive reasons why the peace and hap- 
piness of Texas demand a local government, constituting a re- 
mote frontier of the Republic, and bordering on a powerful na- 
tion, a portion of whose population in juxta-position with her is 
notoriously profligate and lawless; she requires, in a peculiar and 
complete sense, the vigorous application of such laws as are es- 
sential to the prevention of illicit commerce, to the security of 
the public revenues and to the avoidance of serious collision with 
authorities of the neighboring Republic. That such a judicial 
administration is impracticable under the present arrangement 
is too forcibly illustrated by the past to admit of any natural hope 
for the' future. It is an acknowledged principle in the science of 
jurisprudence thi^t the prompt and certain infliction of mild and 
humane punishments is more efficacious for the prevention of 
crime than a tardy and precarious administration of the moet 
sanguinary penal code. 

"Texas is virtually denied the benefit of this benevolent 
rule by the localitv and the character of her present govern- 
ment. * * * These repeated delays, resulting from the re- 
moteness of our courts of judicature, are pernicious in many re- 
spects. They involve heavy expenses, which in civil suits are 
excessively onerous to litigants, and give to the rich and influ- 
ential such manifold advrntages over the poor, as operate to an 
absolute exclusion of the latter from the remedial and protective 
benefits of the law. 

24 




COL. BENJAMIN R. MILAM. 



"They offer seductive opportunities and incitements to 
bribery and corruption, and endanger the sacred purity of the 
judiciary, which, of all the branches of government, is most in- 
timately associated with the domestic and social happiness of 
man; and should therefore be, not only sound and pure; but 
unsuspected of the venal infection. They present insuperable 
difficulties to the exercise of the corrective right of recusa- 
tion, and virtually nullify the constitutional power of impeach- 
ment. In criminal actions they are no less injurious. They are 
equivalent to a license to iniquity, and exert a dangerous influ- 
ence on the moral feelings at large. * * * The popular 
feeling is changed from a just indignation of the cnme, into 
an amiable, but mistaken sympathy for the criminal, and by an 
easy and natural transition, is converted into disgust and dis- 
affection towards the govemment and its laws. * * *" 

The petition was an arraignment cf the government officials 
and the manner of enforcing the laws as well nigh criminal, while 
it was almost a counterpart of the arraignment our ancestors 
gave to Greiat Britain in the early struggles of the American 
colonies. It spoke the sentiments of true American manhood, 
untrammeled by the fear of tryanny's shackles. 

The convention nominated three commissioners, Stephen F. 
Austin, Erasmo Seguin and James B. Miller, to carry the missive 
to the supreme government over 1200 miles away, over rugged 
ways, surrounded by many dangers and toils. It finally fell on 
Stephen F. Austin alone to bear the message fraught with eo 
much significance, and attended with so much danger. But the 
faithful and intrepid Austin was ready for all emergencies and 
left Texas in April following, for the City of Mexico, where he 
arrived safely, and found the discontent as great and turbulent 
as it had been ten years prior, when he Avas an applicant for the 
confirmation of his contract of colonization. Austin found the 
whole government in tunnoil — divided into military factions 
for siipreraaey — the country threatening revolution, and the rise 

25 



and fall of dynasties was as quick and complete as the intrigues 
of the Arab chiefs, and in the artful plans for success none 
played a more brilliant role than Santa Anna, who had himself 
elected, proclaimed supreme dictator by eight of his leading gen- 
erals and four bishoi>s of his diocese. It is hardly worth while 
to add that his election was unanimous, and ratified by the army 
then under his control. With such powerful auxiliaries, no 
wonder he could sway the sceptre of the autocrat, and trample 
under his iron tread all opposition in Mexico, and whenever the 
head of man was reared in defense of freedom and liberty, the 
head went off and the tongue was throttled, lest it would live to 
speak again in defense of liberty's cause. When Austin stated 
his mission to the co-uncil of the supreme government and made 
known the contents of the petition of the colonists, he called 
do^vn upon his head the wrath of the generalissimo, who was 
sublime dictator over all the destinies of Mexico. Austin, per- 
ceiving the trend of affairs in Mexico, was active in advising his 
people and every interest in Texas to organize for local self- 
government. He plainly saw that no colonization plan could 
ever be successful under the rule of the quasi revolutionary dic- 
tatorship of Santa Anna, or any other Mexican ruler. 

His advices to his people in Texas were intercepted by the 
government officials, and when he bade the administration good- 
by and left for home, he was arrested on his route at Saltillo, 
returned to the City of Mexico and imprisoned in the dungeons 
of the old inquisition, shut out from the light of day, and not 
allowed to speak to or correspond with any one, nor to have books, 
pen, ink or paper. 

Austin had his enemies like all men who are engaged in a 
great and humane work. These enemies tried to cast gloom over 
his enterprises, and perhaps rob him of the share of praise due 
from his people. Such robbers are plentiful, even now. 

After a lingering confinement Austin made his statements 

26 



to the govemment, who finally liberated him, and he returned to 
the people who had commissioned him to go in their behalf. 

Santa Anna had in the mean time dissolved the constitu- 
tional congress, and in this manner retained in his own hands the 
substantial authority of government, which he covertly used to 
destroy the constitution he had sworn to defend. 

These high-handed acts of Santa Anna brought out strong 
opposition among some of the wealthy Mexicans, who issued 
proclamations (pronunciamentos) denouncing Santa Anna and 
his unconstitutional acts. But in the tumult and after many 
conflicts Santa Anna grew in the ascendancy. He virtually dis- 
solved the social compact, and placed every man outside the pale 
of his army and cabinet under a ban of distrust and warfare. 
Anarchy was reigning in all sections — laws and constitutions ob- 
literated at will; when one arose to protest, he was summarily 
court martialed and shot. Truly did the advancing legions of the 
dictator go with a mightier tread than those of Nero or Oalligula, 
and as often imbued in innocent blood as the father of the Turk- 
ish harmem in his assassinate orders. 

To provide a remedy against this misrule and tyrannical 
condition of affairs, a large body of Oohahuilan citizens as.-?em- 
bled with the inhabitants of Bexar at San Antonio on the 13th of 
October, 1834, and resolved, on motion of Don Erasmo Seguin, 
the chief of the department, that a state convention should be 
held in Bexar on the 15th of November, 1834, to organize a 
pipvisional government in order "to save the country from un- 
paralleled anarchy and confusion." Copies of the resolution 
were sent to all the other departments of the state. The project 
was approved by all the deputies, but it was not carried out for a 
want of concert of action. 

In the meantime Don Lorenzo de Zavala had resigned his 
position to the French embassy from the government of Mexico 
on account of the intrigues and usurpation of the Dictator Santa 
Anna, whom he formerly followed, when the ruler held the 

27 



constitution of 1824 in sacred honor and kept his oath to support 
the same inviolate. When Zavala returned from France he sent 
his letter of resignation to the Dictator Santa Anna, and strongly 
upholding the liberal views v^'hich fostere<l the constitution of 
their counti^, he retired to his estate on the San Jacinto river in 
Texas, when demanded by Santa Anna. 

Zavala's position and experience gave him an accurate per- 
ception of Santa Anna's revolutionary schemes. The Plan of 
I'oluca, published by the order of the Dictator, calling for a 
change of the Mexican government from a federal to a centred 
republic, was the certain prelude to the overthrow of the consti- 
tutional compact. In all the events <d" the Texans Zavala was a 
hearty co-laborer with Stephen F. Austin and all the other 
patriots of Texas. Early in September, 1835, Stephen F. Austin 
returned to his home from his long prison life in the City of 
Mexico, and on the 8th of September attended a public dinner at 
Brazoria, given in honor of his retura to his countrymen. In a 
speech to his fellow-citizens on that occasion, he said among 
other things: "I left Texas in April, 1833, as the public agent 
of the people, for the purpose of applying for the admission of 
this country into the Mexican confederation as a state separate 
from Cohahuila. This application was based upon the constitu- 
tional and vested rights of Texas, and Avas sustaiiied' by me in the 
City of Mexico to the utmost of my abilities. 

"No honorable means were spared to effect the objects of 
my mission, and to oppose the forming into a territory, which was 
attempted. I rigidly adhered to the instructions and wishes of 
my constituents, so far as they were communicated to me. My 
efforts to serve Texas involved me in the labyrinth of Mexican 
}X>litics. I was arrested and have suffered a long persecution and 
imprisonment. * * * The revolution in Mexico is drawing 
to a close. The object is to change the form of government, de- 
stroy the Federal Constitution of 1824, and establish a central, 
or consolidated government. The states are to be converted into 

28 




JAMES BOWIE. 



provinces. Texas certainly did not originate tliat revolution, 
neither have the people, as a people, participated in it. The 
consciences and hands of the Texans are free from censure and 
clean. 

''Whether the people of Texas ought or ought not to agree 
to this change, ajid relinquish ail or a part of their constitutional 
and vested rights under the constitution of 1824, is a Question of 
the most vital importance, one that calls for the deliberate con- 
sideration of the people; and can only be decided by them, fairly 
convened for the purpose. * * * Under the Spanish gov- 
ernment, Texas was a seperate and distinct province. As such it 
had a separate and distinct local organization. It was one of the 
unities that composed the general mass of the nation, and as 
such participated in the war of the revolution, and was repre- 
sented in the constituent congress of Mexico that formed the 
constitution of 1824. This constituent congress, so far from de- 
stroying this unity, expressly recoguized and confirmed it by the 
law of May 7th, 1824, which united Texas with Cohahuila pro- 
visionally, under the espeoial ,<ruarantee of being made a state 
of the Mexican confederation as soon as it possessed the necessary 
elements. That law and the Federal Constitution gave to Texas 
a specific political existence, and vested in its inhabitants special 
and defined rights, which can only be relinquished by the people 
of Texas, acting for themselves as a unity, and not as a part of 
Cohahuila, for the reason that the union with Cohahuila was 
limited, and only gave power to the State of Cohahuila and Texas 
to govern Texas for the time being, but always subject to the 
vested rights of Texas. The state, therefore, cannot relinquish 
those vested rights by agreeing to the change of government, or 
by any other act, unless expressly authorized by the people of 
Texas to do so; neither can the general government of Mexico 
legally deprive Texas of them without the consent of this people. 
These are my opinions. 

"An important question now presents itself to the people 

29 



of this country. The Federal Oonstitution of 1824 is about to 
be destroyed; the system of government changed, and a central 
or consolidated one be established. * * This matter requires 
the most calm discussion, the most mature deliberation, and the 
most perfect union. How is this to be had? I see but one way, 
and that is by a general consultation of the people by means of 
delegates elected for that purpose, with full powers to give such 
an answer, in the name of Texas, to this question, as they deem 
best, and to adopt such measures as the tranquility and salvation 
of the country may require. * * *" 

Committees of safety were appointed among all the colonists 
in Texas and in every department where messengers could reach. 
Austin was chairman of the committee in his own colony, which 
met at San Filipe. 

Santa Anna, mistrusting the independent blood flowing 
through the Anglo-Saxon's veins, and having seen enough on the 
Texas border to arouse his fear that the colonists in Texas would 
not endure his tyrannical usurpation without a long resistance, 
and believing the colonists were growing strong in numbers, and 
that their lands were yielding great wealth, sent one of his trusted 
generals on a secret mission among the colonists in Texas, and 
to report to Santa Anna of his errand. 

General Juan N. Almonte was detailed for this purpose, 
and in the spring of 1835 made a full and complete report to the 
general government of his observations, giving in detail the topog- 
laphy of the country from the Eio Grande to Sabine river, giv- 
ing number of colonists, the number of schools and how taught; 
the yield of products of the soil; givine distances from one point 
to another, and how the military fortifications were located and 
manned. 

Indeed, his report was so replete that it shows an ulterior 
military movement was contemplated, and only awaited the re- 
port to put it on foot; as the report gave out the fact that it was 
unnecessary to brinp- troops and an army into Texas overland; as 

30 



it was but four days to move thither by land to Vera Cniz, and 
the voyage from thence to Galveston or Brazoria might be made 
in six or eight days more. 

The committee of safety had information of the most posi- 
tive character that the intention of the dominant party in Mexico 
was to introduce military government in Texas, the invasion of 
which was a common theme of conversation among officers. "In- 
fantry, artillery and cavalry had been ordered from San Lonis 
Potosi, Saltillo and Tamanlipas, and all disposable infantry at 
Oampeachy and other interior points in Mexico had been ordered 
on to Texas by water. Magazines of ai-ms and ammunition were 
being concentrated at Matamoras, Goliad and Bexar, and the old 
barracks and fortifications at the latter place were undergoing 
repairs to receive a large force. Falcon, who was duly installed 
as the constitutional governor of the state, was deposed by the 
military and a governor appointed by Santa Anna. 

Instructions had been issued by General Cos to Colonel 
Ugertechea, commandant of Bexar, to march into the colonies 
and take Zavala and the other proscribed Mexicans, be the con- 
sequences what they may. In addition to the flagrant outrage on 
the civil government, and to make resistance less forcible, Cos. 
issued an order requiring the citizens of Brazoria, Columbia, 
Velasco and other places to surrender their arms to the military 
authorities. 

It was known that Cos himself was expected at Bexar with 
a strong reinforcement of troops, and his motive was to destroy 
the unity of the colonists and "break up the foreign settlements in 
Texas." Being now satisfied that the time for acti( n had come, 
that the invader was at the very gates with panoplied armies and 
glittering spurs, the committee of safety for the iurisdiction of 
Austin issued a circuiui-, dated Ceptember 19th, 1835, and ad- 
dressed to the people of Texas which, amonq- other things recited, 
^ * * "That every district should send members to the gen- 
eral consultation, wi^h full powers to do whatever may be uece!=- 

31 



sarv for the good of the country; that every district should or- 
ganize its militia, where it is not already done, ani hohl frequent 
musters; and that tho captains of companies mako a return, 
without delay, to the chief of this department, of the force of his 
company, and its arms and ammunition, in order that he may lay 
the same before the general consultation of Texas. Volunteer 
companies are also recommended. Tliis committee deem it to he 
their duty to say that, in their opinion, all kinds of conciliatory 
measures with General Cos and the military at Bexar are hope- 
less, and that nothing but the ruin of Texas can be expected from 
any such measures. They have already, and very properly, been 
resorted to without effect. 

"War is our only recourse. There is no other remedy. We 
must defend our rights, ourselves and our country by force of 
arms. To do this we must unite, and in order to unite, the 
delegates of the people meet in general consultation and arrange 
a system of defense, and give organization to the country so as to 
produce concert. 

"Until some competent authority is established to direct, 
all that can be done is to recommend this subject to the people, 
and to advise every man in Texas to prepare for war, and lay 
aside all hope of conciliation." 

Already General Cos was at Copano with 400 men from 
Matamoras on his way to San Antonio de Bexar. He was well 
equipped with guards, lancers and munitions of war. He had 
over $60,000 in silver in his coffers, and in a private letter, dated 
October 1st, 1835, at La Baca, he informed the Alcade of the 
Nueces district that he intended to ovemui Texias and march 
into the colonies and regulate their affairs. 

Thus was war declared by the invasion of Santa Anna's 
cohorts on the vested rights of the Texans. "To arms, ' was the 
slogan of war on every side. 

Preparation was being hastily made among the colonists to 

32 



repell the invasion, and hurl back the iron heel of the despotic 
satraps of the self -proclaimed Dictator Santa Anna. 

Colonel IJgartechea, at the head of 200 Mexican cavalry, 
made the first military demonstration acrainst the municipality 
of Gonzales by demanding of the Alcade a piece of artillery 
which had been four years perviously given to the citizens there 
for their defense and their rights under constitutional govern- 
ment. 

The demand was refused. On the 20th of September the 
Mexican forces attempted to cross the Guadalupe river, but were 
repulsed by eighteen men, under Captain Albert Martin, the 
whole of the available force then at Gonzales. The Mexicans 
encamped on a small mound near by till the 1st of October, when 
they removed and assumed a strong position seven miles above 
the tOAvn of Gonzales. The Texans had been reinforced by their 
countrymen from Guadalupe, La Baca and Colorado to 168 men, 
of whom fifty were mounted. John H. Moore Avas elected 
colonel of the battalion and J. W. E. Wallace lieutenant colonel. 
They, expecting the Mexicans would be reinforced from San 
Antonio de Bexar, prepared for the attack on the Mexican strong- 
hold. Dividing their men into two columns, the advance was 
made. During the thick fog early in the morning the enemy 
could not be observed. A few stray shots from the picket line 
told where they were. When the little brass cannon was brought 
into play with a few well-directed shots, and a charge by the 
Texans at quick pace put the enemy to flight, and they retired 
towards San Antonio, after having sustained considerable loss 
in killed and wounded. 

Inspired by this success, the colonists resolved to attack the 
Mexicans at Goliad and San Antonio, and sent out to all settle- 
ments for volunteers to be sent down to augment their forces. 
Stephen F. Austin sent a messenger to the people of the eastern 
municipalities, urging them to join their friends in the depart- 
ment of the Brazos, who were animated by one spirit of*defense, 

33 



and taking Bexar, and dri^dng the Mexican military out of 
1'exas. 

In the address of the general council at San Felipe de 
Austin, to the people of Texas, October 23, 1835, they said: 
''Like our fathers of the revolution, we have sworn to live free 
or die. Like our fathers of 1776, we have pledged to each 
other our lives, fortunes and sacred honors, and have vowed to 
drive every Mexican soldier beyond the Rio Grande, or whiten 
the plains with our bones." 

The revolutionary and unconstitutional methods of Santa 
Anna in Mexico had caused many good people in Piiebla, Oaxaca, 
Zalisco, Zac^tacas and other states of Mexico to rise in revolt 
against the Dictator; and many serious conflicts of arms were had 
in the struggle for supremacy. Santa Anna, being in control of 
the army and navy, all the treasury and munitions of war of the 
nation, had an easy task in putting the revolt down, and exe- 
cuting the leaders of the agitation. 

It has heen a favorite pastime of all the rulers of Mexico, 
who owe their positions to revolution and intrigue, to execute all 
those who oppose them, and by mock tribunals, appointed by the 
Dictator to carry out certain measures, to always order shot on 
short notice those who criticise the government in any manner, 
or speak of the usurpation of the president in power. After 
Santa Anna had accomplished his desires on his countrymen in 
Mexico, and flushed with victory over them in arms, and drinking 
the blood afresh from the martyred patriots, he turned his atten- 
tion towards Texas, and no doubt swore in his heart to take the 
blood of every American found in Texas ; if not killed in battle, 
to put them to the sword after capture. Subsequent events fully 
show this character in the heart of the meanest coward that ever 
paraded before the gaze of man the most venal tyrant that ever 
drew a sword in any cause. 

Santa Anna ordered his brother-in-law, General Martin Per- 
fecto de Cos, who was in command at Matamoras, Mexico, to 

34 



proceed with a suitable force to the eastern iatemal provinces 
and punish the legislature of Cohahuila and Texas. 

General Cos issued an address denouncing the legislature at 
Mouclova. Benjamin R. Milam, who had fought under Jackson 
at New Orleans, a brave soldier from Kentucky, was a member 
of the legislature of Cohahuila and Texas, and was at Mouclova 
at this time. During the usurpation of the military under Cos, 
the governor of Cohahuila and Texas attempted to move the 
effects of the state across the Rio G-rande. Milam and others 
were his escort. Finding his plans of escape frustrated, he finally 
delivered the state, government over to Cos. When this was done 
he and Milam and Dr. Cameron were arrested and sent under 
guard to the dungeons of the Castle of San Juan D'Ulloa, at Vera 
Cruz. At Monterey, en route, Milam and Cameron made their 
escape by different routes, and Milam, foot gore and hungry, 
after a march of over five hundred miles through ihe enemy's 
country, found his way to Groliad, Texas, and joined the Texas 
forces there in an almost famished condition. . 

On the 8th of October, 1835, a detachm.jnt of fifty men, 
under Captain Collinsworth, attacked and captured the post of 
Goliad, with 300 stand of arms and $10,000 worth of stores. 
The garrison was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Sandoval. 
In this engagement Colonel Milam took up arms in the army of 
Texas as a private soldier. 

On the 11th of October the "western anny'' of the colonists 
was organized at headquarters on the right bank of the Guada- 
lupe. Stephen Austin was elected oommander-in-ehief, and on 
the 13th of October he moved towards Bexar, wliich he proposed 
to reduce, though strongly fortified by Mexican soldiers under 
General Cos, over 1500 strong. 

The whole Texas force did not amoant to more than 300 
men, poorly disciplined and poorly armed. But when a soldier's 
cause is just, his banner floats proudly to the last, and dea<,h is 
sweet in the embrace of victory. Austin, feeling the necessity 

35 



for additional strength, wrote to the cominittee of safety at San 
Felipe, urging up the eastern volunteers *'to hurry on by forced 
marches, not to stay for cannon, or for anything." On the 20th 
of October the Texans reached the Salado creek, about five miles 
from San Antonio de Bexar, to wait for reinforceinents. 

Cos refused to receive a flag of truce from Austin, or to 
acknowledge him in a military capacity, saying he would lire on 
the second flag of truce if sent. 

After the fall of Goliad, the Mexicans used every effort to 
fortify San Antonio de Bexar, and the colonists could not hope 
to reduce the ganison without artillery and reinforcements. 
'I'hey expected cannon from eastern Texas and accessions from 
the United States. 

On the 27th of October Colonel James Bowie and Captain 
J. W. Fannin, by order of the commanding general, Stephen 
Austin, with a detachment of ninety men, proceeded to examine 
the old missions and select the most eligible situatio i near San 
Antonio for the encampment of the main army. After inspect- 
ing missions San Juan and San Jose, they proceeded to that of 
Coneepcion, distant about one and a half miles from San An- 
tonio, and selected ground about five hundred yards from the 
mission in the bend of the San Antonio river. At this place the 
detachment lay on arms all night without alarm. On the morn- 
ing of the 28th the fog was so dense that the pickets were unable 
to discern objects not close. About half an hour after sun rise 
the Mexican cavalry rode close by and fired on the sentinels. 

The official account made by Colonel Bowie to General 
Austin of the fight which ensued is here given as the best de- 
scription: 

"The men were called to arms, but were for some time un- 
able to discover their foes, who had entirely surrounded the po- 
sition and kept up a constant firing at a distance, with no other 
effect than a waste of ammunition. "When the fog rose it was 
apparent to all that we were surrounded, and that a desperate 

36 



fight was inevitable, all coramunication with the main army 
having been cut off. Immediate preparation was made by ex- 
tending our right flanJi to the south and placing the second di- 
vision on the left, on the same side, so that they might be pre- 
pared for the enemy should they charge into the angle and avoid 
the effect of a cross fire by our own men, and likewise form a com- 
pact body, so that either might reinforce the other at the shortest 
notice without crossing the angle, an exposed ground, which 
would have occasioned certain loss. 

"The men in the meantime were ordered to clear away bushes 
and vines under the eminence in the rear and alonsr the margin 
of the river, and at the steepest places to cut steps for foot hold, 
in order to afford them space to form and pass, and at suitable 
places ascend the bluff, discharge their rifles and fall back to re- 
load. The work was not complete to our wish before the Mexican 
infantry were seen to advance, with arms trailed, to the right of 
the first division, and form the line of battle about two hundred 
yards distant from the right flank. Five companies of cavalry 
supported them, covering our whole front and flank. 

"The engagement commenced at about eight o'clock a. m., 
by the deadly crack of a rifle from the extreme right. The action 
was immediately g-eneral. The discharge from the enemy was 
one continued blaze of fire, whilst that from our lines was more 
slowly delivered, but with good aim and deadly effect, each man 
retiring under cover of the hill and timber to give place to others 
until he reloaded. The battle had not lasted more than ten 
minutes when a brass six pounder was opened on our line at the 
distance of about eighty yards from the right flank of the first 
division, and a charge sounded. But the cannon was cleared as 
if by magic and a check put to the charge. 

"The same experiment was resorted to with like success 
three times, the division advancing under cover of the hill at each 
fire, and thus approximating near the cannon and victory. 'The 
cannon and victory' was truly the war cry. The enemy on]}' 

37 



fired it five times, and it had been three times cleared, anr! their 
charge as often broken, when a disorderly and precipitate retreat 
was sounded and most readily obeyed, leaving the cannon to the 
victors. Thus a detachment of ninety men gained a complete 
victory over part of the main army of the central government, 
being at least four to one, with only the loss of one brave soldier 
(Richard Andrews), and none wounded. No invidious distinc- 
tion can be drawn between any officer or private on this occasion. 
Every man was a soldier, and did his duty agreeably to the situa- 
tion and circumstances under which he was placed. At the close 
of the engagement a piece of heavy artillery was brought up and 
fired thrice, but at a distance, and by a reinforcement of another 
company of cavalry, aided by six mules ready harne?sed, they 
got it off. The main army (of Texas) reached us in about an 
hour after the enemy's retreat. 

"Had it been possible to communicate with you (General 
i\ustin), and brought you up earlier, the victory would have been 
conclusive and San Antonio de Bexar ours before 12 o'clock." 

Colonel Bowie estimated the Mcxi'^pn loss at sixty killed and 
forty wounded. None of the artillery men escaped unhurt. 

James Bowie came to Texas several years prior to this date 
from Mississippi with his brother, Tfazin P. F>owie. These 
brothers were the inventors and first makers of a formidable 
hunting knife, which bears their name, and which blade is often 
used in mode of defense. The Bowies were famous for their 
daring bravery and coolness under great difficulties, and were 
known far and near as the most intrepid Indian fighters of the 
West. James Bowie had married the beautifuJ daughter «»f Don 
Antonio de la Garza, of San Antonio. 

On the 28th of October, the Texas army, having received 
some small reinforcements, advanced close to San Antonio. 
General (Jos, afraid to hazai'd an engagement, prepared to de^ 
fend the town by barricading the streets, planting cannon on top 
of the church and the Alamo. 

38 



On the 3d of jSTovember a detachment of fifty men from 
Goliad, under Adjutant Westover, had a battle near San Patricio, 
Tex., and captured and paroled 21 prisoners, taking two small 
pieces of cannon which had been taken from the citizens of San 
Patricio by the Mexican soldiers. 

On the 4th a body of seventy hostile Mexicans attacked 
Westover's command, and after a half hour's engagement the 
Mexicans retreated with a loss of twenty-eight killed and wound- 
ed. The Texans had one man wounded in the hand. 

On November 8th General Cos sent a detachment of his 
forces to bum all the grass within thirty miles of San Antonio 
de Bexar. A party of forty Texans went to intercept them. A 
fight ensued, in which the Texans were victorious without ma- 
terial loss. The Mexicans lost six killed and several wounded. 
This was known as the "grass fight." 

On the 26th of November another open field fight occurred 
between the Mexican and Texas forces, with about equal num- 
bers on each side, 300. The Texans pursued the retreating forces 
of Mexicans until they were fired on by cxmnons in the forts of 
Bexar. 

Stephen F. Austin, Branch T. Archer and W. H. Wharton, 
having been appointed bv the consultation at San Felipe commis- 
sioners to the TTnited States, on the 29th of November General 
Austin arrived in San Felipe to undertake the duties of the ap- 
pointment. 

Edward Burleson, elected by the volunteers composing the 
army to the chief command, was left to conduct the siege of San 
Antonio de Bexar. B. R. Milam was colonel in the army. De- 
partment of Bexar, and F. T. Johnson lieiitenant colonel. 

The consultation at San Felipe had chosen General Sam 
Houston, of Tennessee,* major general and commander-in-chief 

* General Houston was former governor of Tennessee. Having 
met the sad fate of disappointment so common in so many households, 
he bid adieu to his native land and sought surcease from sorrow among 
the Indian tribes. When the struggle for Independence opened in Tex- 
as, he threw aside the tepee and blanket of the Indian chiefs, and donned 
the spur and saber of the Texan, and won for Texas, through his great 
skill on the plains of San Jacinto, the Independence of Texas. 

39 



of the Texas army, who had established his quarters at Wash- 
ington on the Brazos. 

General Houston, having great experience vdth the Indian 
character, was empowered to engage with the chiefs of ihe tribes 
in Texas on the basis of some amicable terms of peace. These 
hostile red cut throats had taken advantage of the strained con- 
dition of affairs in Texas and were cemmittin;'^ many acts of 
devastation and ruin, so much so that the committee of safety 
appointed three companies of armed horsemen to ride and patrol 
the country from the Brazos to the Colorado rivers, and beyond. 
They were selected for their determined character and unswerv- 
ing bravery, and no class of men ever wore brighter spurs nor 
sheathed their blades with fairer laurels than they. 

The companies were known as "Texas Rangers," and the 
appellation is kept up to this day, as well as close organizations, 
and woe to the marauder who came under their vigilance. Death 
was sure to follow. 

The consultation which had established the provisional gov- 
ernment for Texas had adjourned until the 1st of March follow 
ing, when the governor and council were to meet again, unless 
sooner convened, and election ordered for commissioners or dele- 
gates to such convention or council with fuller powers than had 
been previously delegated. In other words, fully empowered 
to form a constitution for the people, to set forth a bill of rights, 
and regulate. the provisional government, the army and navy ds 
well. All authority was to be subservient to the determination 
of the delegates chosen by the people. 

"The Federal Volunteer army of Texas," had marched to the 
siege of San Antonio de Bexar. In the occasional engagements 
had with the Mexican forces, the Texans have been quite victor- 
ious, though often greatly outnumbered. This led the volun- 
teers to animation, and eager for the coming contest. 

General Cos had a strong garrison in San Antonio de Bexar, 
well equipped with ammunition and provisions, well supplied 

40 




DAVID CROCKETT. 



with artillery and cavalry. Colonel Ugartechea, of the Mexi- 
can army, had reinforced the garrison with 300 additional troops 
during the siege. This swelled the force of General Cos to 
1500 well-equipped troops inside the garrison, and their strong- 
ly-entrenched position made them all defiant; for during the 
assaults of the Texans and while the garrison held out, a black 
and red flag hung out over the "Alamo," indicating that no 
quarter would be given. This had doubtless been inspired by 
Santa Anna himself in his orders to his commanders, thinking 
by this means to overawe and deter the ranks of the Texas forces. 

To confront this greatly superior numerical force. General 
Burleson had not more than 500 men, but determined followers. 
They were eager for the fight, believing in the supremacy of 
their cause, fighting to repel invasion, fighting against tyranny, 
fighting in the face of a flaunting flag that spoke no quarter, was 
incentive enough to raise the courage of any man to a lion's pitch. 

The beautiful Indian summer had just passed; the northers 
of December were coming on the Volunteers. Many of them 
thinly clad were not able to stand the rigors of the winter^S 
"northers," so they began to clamor for the onslaught. They 
could not understand why the charge had not been sounded, and 
some of them were growing discontented over long delays. The 
brave and intrepid B. R. Milam could stand no longer idle in the 
face of the black flag, so he and a few of the officers began to 
search for volunteers to attack San Antonio. 

They succeeded in mustering about 300 sturdy, stout- 
hearted, brave men, who consented to follow Milam to victory 
or death. They chose the war-worn Milam as their leader. His 
judicious skill showed him fully equal to the task, and showed 
that he was well acquainted with the material confronting him. 

The town wa^ situated in the form of an oblong square, 
and lay on the southv/est bank of the San Antonio river. "Two 
small bridges spanned the nver on the two streets communicat- 
ing on the eastern side of the river, where were the walled en- 

41 



closures of the Alamo. Westward of the town was the camp 
of the volunteers. Directing Colonel Neil to divert the atten- 
tion of th€ Mexicans by making a feint upon the Alamo, Milam 
prepared to effect a lodgment in the town at 3 o'clock on the 
morning of the 5th of December. Neil, taking a sweeping 
course by the sources of the San Antonio river, commenced, 
with a piece of artillery, a tire upon the Alamo, while Milam, 
having provided his followers with crow bars and other forcing 
implements, made an entrance into the suburbs beyond the range 
of the Mexican fortifications. Apprised of Milam's advance by 
the firing which followed it, Neil retraced his steps and returned 
with his party to the camp at 9 a. m." 

On the 6th of December the following dispatch, signed by 
Edward Burleson and B. R. Milam, was sent to the Provisional 
Government at San Felioe: 

"Yesterday morning at daybreaJi, Oolonel Milam, witb a 
party of abount 300 volunteers, made an assault upon the town 
of Bexar. His party he distributed in two divisions which, on 
entering the town, took possession, of two buildings near each 
other, near the place where they have been ever since, battling 
with the enemy. They have so far had a fierce contest, the 
enemy offering a strong and obstinate resistance. Tbe houses 
occupied by us command some of the cannon in the place, or 
have silenced them entirely, as it is reported to us. The issue 
is doubtful, of course. Ugartechea is on the way with consid- 
erable reinforcements; how near has not yet been exactly as- 
certained, but certainly he is not more than from fifty to sixty 
miles off. This express has been dispatched for an immediate 
supply of ammunition, as much powder and lead as can possibly 
be sent instantly. Of the first mentioned article, there !■& none 
beyond the cannon cartridges already made up. I hope that 
good mules or horses will l>e procured to send on these articles 
Avith the greatest possible speed, traveling night and day, for 
there is not a moment to be lost. Reinforcements of men are, 

A2 



perhaps, indispensable to our salvation. I hope every exertion 
will be made to force them te our relief immediately." 

These lines were penned by men in sore distress. They 
feared the consequences of a bolder attack, and the appeal was 
full of stress. And royally did the general council of the spe- 
cial committee go to work. They issued an address on the 10th 
of December to the people of Texas, urging them to rally to 
the rescue of the ajmy before Bexar. All attention had been 
riveted on this little band of patriots. Contractors were push- 
ing on with the ammunition. All was rally; the people were 
called to arm's in great emergency. 

Fannin and Rusk were appointed by the council to go east 
and west of the Trinity, and rally reinforcements. While this 
was being done, the volunteers were watching every line to see 
Avhere to make the charge. The siege had been continuous 
from 3 o'clock a. m, on the 5th of December. General Burle- 
son formed all the reserves and held them in readiness for the 
attack. Colonel Johnson commanded the second division of the 
army of investment, who had been reinforced by Captains Che- 
shire, Sutherland and Lewis. 

Milam commanded the first division, supported by two 
pieces of cannon and fifteen artillerymen, and took possession 
of the house of Don Antonio de la Garza. Johnson's division 
forced its way into the dwelling of Vereimendi, amidst a heavy 
discharge of grape shot and musketry. It wae in this house 
Colonel Milam was killed by a rifle shot. The contest lasted 
until half past six o'clock on the morning of December 9, when 
the enemy hauled down the black flag and put up the flag of truce. 
The well-directed fire of the Mexican volunteers reminded the 
Mexican bluffers that they were working for the black flag 
with its calls. Colonel Johnson gives in detail in his report the 
terms of the battle and the capitulation, and we give it in full, 
though lengthy. And while the report should thus be sent by 
a subordinate officer while General Burleson was in command, 

43 



'can only bo solved by the retiring modesty of that brave Texan, 
who only fought for the glory of Tejcas and the rights of self- 
government. Be it said to his honored memory that no caviling 
spirit ever followed him to the grave, nor the want of valor tar- 
nished his sword while livinff. "At 7 o'clock," says the offi- 
cial report of Colonel Johnson, "a heavy cannonading from the 
town was seconded by a well-directed fire from the Alamo, which 
for a time prevented the possibility of covering our lines or ef- 
fecting a safe communication between the two divisions." 

"In consequence of the twelve-pounder having been dis- 
mounted, and the want of proper cover for the other gun, little 
execution was done by our artillery during the day. We were, 
therefore, reduced to a close and well-directed fire from our 
rifles which, notwitlistanding the advantageous position of the 
enemy, obliged them to slacken their fire and several times to 
abandon their artillery within the range of our shot. Our loss 
during the day was one private killed, one colonel and one first 
lieutenant severely wounded, one colonel slightly, three privates 
dangerously, six severely and three slightly. * * * * At 
daylight of the 6th, the enemy were observed to have occupied 
the tops of the houses in our front, where, under cover of the 
breast-works, they opened through loopholes a very brisk fire 
of small arms on our whole line, followed by a steady cannonad- 
ing from the town in front, and from the Alamo on the left flank, 
with few interruptions during the day. 

"A detachment of Captain Crane's company, under Lieu- 
tenant W. McDonald, followed b^" others, gallantly possessed 
themselves, imder a severe fire, of the house to the right and 
in advance of the first division, which considerably extended our 
line; while the rest of the army was occupied in returning the 
enemy's fire and strengthening our trenches, which enabled our 
artillery to do some execution and complete a safe communication 
from our right to left. Our loss this day amounted to three 
privates severely wounded and two slightly. 

44 



"DuriDg the night the fire of the enemy was inconsider- 
able, and our people were occupied in making and filling sand 
bags, and otherwise strengthening our lines. At daylight on 
the 7th, it was discovered that the enemy had, during the night 
previous, opened a trench on the Alamo side of the river and 
on the left flank, as well as strengthened their battery on the 
cross street leading to the Alamo. From the first they opened 
up a brisk fire of small arnas, which was kept up until 11 o'clock, 
when they were silenced by our superior fire. 

"About 12 o'clock Henry Kames, of Captain York's com- 
pany, exposed to a heavy fire from the enemy, gallantly ad- 
vanced to a house in front of the first division, and with a crow- 
bar forced an entrance through which the whole company im- 
mediately followed him, and made a secure lodgment. 

"In the evening the enemy renewed a heavy fire from aJi 
the positions which could bear upon us, and at about half past 
three o'clock, as our gallant commander. Colonel Milam, was 
passing into the yard of my position (the house of Verimendi), 
he received a n'fle shot in the head which caused his instant, 
death — an irreparable loss at so critical a moment. Our casu- 
alties otherwise during this day were only two privates slightly 
wounded. 

"At a meeting of officers held at seven o'clock, I was in- 
vested with the chief command, with Major Morris as my sec- 
ond, Captains Lewellyn, English, Crane and Landrum, with 
their respective companies, forced their way into and took pos- 
session of the house of Don Antonio Navarro, an advanced and 
important position close to the square. 

"The fire of the enemy became interrupted and slack duiv 
ing the whole night, and the weather exceedingly cold and wet. 
The morning of the 8th continued cold and wet, and but little 
firing on either side. At nine o'clock tbe same companies who> 
took possession of Don J. Antorao Navarro's house, aided by 

45 



a detachment of the Grays, advanced and occupied the Zam- 
brano Row, leading to the square, without any accident. 

"The brave conduct on this occasion of William Graham, 
of Cook's Company of Grays, merits mention. A heavy fire of 
artillery and small arms was opened on this position by the 
enemy, who disputed every inch of ground, and after suffering 
a severe loss of officers and men, were obliged to retire from room 
to room until they evacuated the whole building. During this 
time our men were reinforced by a detachment from York's com- 
pany, under the command of Lieutenant Gill. The cannonad- 
ing was exceedingly heavy from all quarters during the day, 
but did no essential damage. Our loss consisted of one captain 
seriously wounded, and two privates severely. At seven o'clock 
in the evening the party in Zambrano's Row were reinforced 
by Captains Swisher, Alley, Edwards and Duncan, and their 
respective companies. This evening we had undoubted infor- 
mation of .the arrival of a strong reinforcement to the enemy 
under Colonel Ugartechea. At half past ten o'clock in the 
evening Captains Cook and Patton, with the Company of New 
Orleans Grays and a company of Brazaria volunteers, forced 
their way into the priest's house in the square, although exposed 
to the fire of a battery of three guns and a large body of mus- 
keteers. Before this, however, the division was reinforced from 
the reserves by Captains Cheshire, Sutherland and Lewis, and 
their companies. Immediately after we got possession of the 
priest's house they opened a furious cannonade from all their 
batteries, accompanied by incessant volleys of small arms, against 
every house in our possession and every part of our lines, which 
continued unceasingly until half past six o'clock of the morn- 
ing of the 9th, when they sent a flag of truce, with an intima- 
tion that they desired to capitulate. Our loss in this night's at- 
tack consisted of one man only dangerously wounded while in 
the act of spiking a cannon. The loss to the Texans was trifling, 
save Colonel Milam's death. The loss of the Mexicans was 
severe, some reporting 200 killed and 300 wounded." 

46 



Tlius ended one of the most stubbornly-contested engage- 
ments between the contending parties, with a complete victory 
to the Texas arms. On the 11th of December, 1835, the com- 
missioners on each side met and agreed upon terms of capitu- 
lation, which were ratified and approved by the respective com- 
manders-in-chief — Burleson and Cos. 

The terms of the capitulation were: "The retirement of 
General Cos and his officers, with their arms and private prop- 
erty, into the interior of the Republic of Mexico, under paroles 
of honor that they would not in any way oppose the re-estab- 
lishmerit of the Federal Constitution of 1824. The retirement 
with the general of the 100 infantry lately arrived with the 
convicts, the renmants of the battalion of Morelos, and the cav- 
alry, taking their arms and ten rounds of cartridges. The re- 
moval beyond the Rio Grande of the convicts brought in by 
Colonel Ugartechea, the troops to be free to follow their gen- 
eral, or to remain, or to go to such point as they might think 
proper; but in case all or any of them separated, they were to 
have their arms, etc. All public property, money, arms and 
munitions of war to be inventoried and delivered to General 
Burleson. All private property to be restored to its owners. 
That General Cos should remove within six days, and that dur- 
ing the interval he should occupy the Alamo, while the Texans 
occupied the town- of Bexar. The citizens were to be protected 
in their persons and property ; nor was any person to be molested 
on account of political opinions previously expressed. The sick 
and wounded Mexicans were to be allowed to remain with a 
surgeon and attendance, and General Cos was to be furnished 
with provisions at the ordinary prices to maintain his troops to 
the Rio Grande. On the morning of December 14th, Cos re- 
moved from the Alamo to the Mission San Jose, and on the fol- 
lowing day commenced his march for the Rio Grande. A large 
quantity of military stores in the town and in the fort was de- 
livered to General Burleson, including nineteen pieces of cannon 

47 



of various caliber, two swivel guns, several hundred stands of 
arms, bayonets, lances, and an abundance of ammunition." 

The first great campaign of the colonists was at an end. 
From the Sabine to the Rio Grande no Mexican soldier was to 
be found save General Cos and his paroled followers. The gar- 
rison and town of San Antonio de Bexar were placed under the 
command of the brave Colonel Johnson. The rest of the vol- 
unteer army were permitted to return to their homes. They 
had shown in the short, active campaign the valor and successes 
which no trained soldiery in ancient or modem times have 
ever accomplished. A mere handful of raw and undisciplined 
men fresh from the fields of honest toil, banding themselves 
together for one common cause, the liberty of the people ; choos- 
ing their own commanders, and by dint of honor obeying like 
trained soldiers, merits an encomium seldom bestowed. Such 
honors outlive the marble and brass on which the hieroglyphics 
of fame are often enrolled. To such, a state is indebted for 
more than posterity can repay, for they fought the battles of 
their country without emolument, without the hope of reward. 
Patriotism grand and sublime shown out from every brow, un- 
sullied honor crowned every act of the volunteer soldier, the 
hope of Texas. Of him it cannot be said : 

" For gold, his sword the hireling chieftain draws, 
For gold, the sordid Judge distorts the laws." 



48 



CHAPTER III. 



News of Santa Anna Mustering Another Army for Texas Invasion — 
Appeals to the Settlers — Colonel Fannin at Goliad — Colonels Tra- 
vis, Bowie, Crockett and Their Followers in San Antonio de Bexar 
— March of Santa Anna's Army to Bexar — Attack on the Town — 
Texans Take Shelter in the Alamo — Travis' Last Appeal — Al- 
monte's Diary Report — Assault on the Alamo — The Storming — De- 
scription of the Battle — Fall of the Alamo — Death of the Defenders, 
Travis, Bowie, Crockett. 

When the vohmteer soldiery returned to their homes after 
the victory of San Antonio de Bexar, and when every Mexican 
soldier was driven from the borders of Texas, the quiet dream 
of peace settled in the abode of all homes. Happiness had re- 
turned to sweeten the lives of those who had escaped the cas- 
ualties of war. But not long to rest in such happy homes was 
left to their repose, for news from various reliable sources con- 
veyed the intelligence that Santa Anna was preparing to march 
against them with augmented forces, with the determination 
to wipe them off the face of the earth. The dictator had been 
stung by the crushing defeat his army had received at the hands 
of the colonists. He was smarting to teach the revolution- 
ists a lesson in his military methods at usurpation. 

Through his wiley art as a political strategist, he had 
awakened a sentiment among the Mexicans all over the Repub- 
lic, as well as in Oohahuila, that Texas was in revolt against 
the supreme authority of Mexico, and was trying to overthrow 
the constitution of 1824, which he had so often and so fla- 
grantly violated in an outrageous manner. He appealed to the 

49 



Cohahiiilans to aid in suppressing Texas. With his political 
plans thus laid, the martialed his legions under his trained lieu- 
tenants, and at their head started for the Rio Grande under 
emblazon tri-colors, with the black ensign for his standard in 
battle, indicating that no quarter would be shown. Indeed, he 
had already pronounced the Texan patriots traitors and pirates, 
and ordered them shot down whenever found with arms. 

Those who had the safety of Texas in charge knew the 
coming storm was to be a fierce one, and began to prepare for 
shelter. Many of the citizens were in favor of adhering to the 
Constitution of 1824, under which the dual state of Cohahuila 
and Texas v^'as formed, and fighting for tbeir rights under the 
privileges declared in it. Others were more outspoken for inde- 
pendence as a free and Independent Republic. Among this 
number were some of their most intrepid leaders in the former 
victories; and Stephen Austin, who had been seiit as a delegate 
to the United States, ajid who had a good opportunity to watch 
the pulse of the people of the greater confederation. 

Open demonstration had been made in favor of indepen- 
dence at Goliad, Texana and San Augustine. The war cry was 
being heralded all over the colonies for independence. That 
the Anglo-American colonists were so different in constitution, 
habits, religion and education from the Mexican, that no oon- 
geniality existed among them, and all their ideas and principles 
on form of government were diagonally at points; and so long 
as they remained under one form of government discord would 
reign supreme. Under this strained situation of affairs, appeals 
had been sent to their friends in the United States for assist- 
ance in money and men; and those appeals were not in vain, 
for some funds had been raised in many places and sent to the 
credit of the Texans. Volunteer companies were being raised 
in many parts of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and 
Louisiana, in many instances the companies equipping them- 

50 



selves and paying their own transportation, offered their ser- 
vices to the Texas authorities. 

In January, 1836, Stephen F. Austin, then in New Orleans, 
concluded a loan of $250,000 for the support of the Texas army 
and navy, Texas having bought two or three small vessels and 
fitted them out for war. As Santa Anna called them "pirates." 
'J'he loan, was granted to Texas on the full understanding that 
the convention of delegates to assemble the 1st of March, 1836, 
would declare for absolute independence, and Austin wrote his 
views thus: "Should a Declaration of Independence be made, 
there ought to be no limits prescribed on the south, west or 
northwest. The field should be left open for extending beyond 
the Rio Grande to Chihuahua and New Mexico." 

Perhaps a fellow-feeling made them intensely bold. All 
felt that blood was thicker than water, and believed that in 
absolute straits, appeals to the United States government would 
not be in vain. Remembering with warm hearts, heated from 
firesides of revolutionary sires, that vigilance was the price of 
freedom and personal independence, all were directing their 
steps in the same pathway of kinship against tyranny and op- 
pression of usurpers. 

Everything indicated that when the convention of dele- 
gates met on the 1st of March, 1836, a resolution for the free 
and independent government of Texas would be passed. With 
the discussions attending the accomplishment of these happy re- 
sults, we are not to deal in recording the events herein. 

The Governor and council of safety of Texas had appointed 
General Sam Houston commander-in-chief of the Texas forcee, 
and had commissioned him to negotiate with the Indian tribes 
in Texas border for friendlv relations. 

The same council advised "the immediate reduction of the 
town of Matamoras and its dependencies, together with all places 
on or near the Rio Grande." 

This move was thought advisable to carry their operations 

51 



on in the enemy's country, or conclude an honorable and ad- 
vantageous peace; for peace the colonists longed for, but op- 
pression they would not bear. This bold and strategic move- 
ment was suggested by P. Dimit, who was then commandant 
of Goliad, in December 1835. By this movement it was pro- 
posed to secure, by the capture of Matamoras, the large revenues 
of that port, amounting to more than $100,000 monthly. 

This town was a great commercial center, shipping large 
quantities of stores to the interior of Mexico, and receiving in 
return lai'ge shipments of gold and silver bars. Colonel Fan- 
i.in, the government agent, announced an expedition to the west, 
and ordered the volunteers from Bexar, Goliad, Velasco and 
other points, to rendezvous at San Patricio, between the 24th 
and 27th of January, 1836, and report to the officer in com- 
mand. 

Colonel Francis W. Johnson, who commanded at the siege 
of San Antonio de Bexar, after General Burleson, was authorized 
by the government to lead the volunteers in the projected enter- 
prise. 

On January 1st, 200 of the volunteers stationed at San 
Antonio de Bexar had marched for Goliad, on their way to 
San Patricio, under the command of Colonel (Doctor) Grant. 
On the next day a meeting of part of the garrison had been 
held, and resolutions passed approving of Lieiitenant Colonel 
Neil as commander, in the absence of Colonel Johnson; and 
declaring it ''highly essential that the existing army should re- 
main in Bexar." 

This declaration was in condemnation of the movement 
against Matamoras, which would leave San Antonio defense- 
less. 

Hence, the movement against Matamoras was abandoned 
by Neil, and some misunderstanding among the leaders having 
arisen, nearly all the men under Colonel Grant abandoned him 
learning that his object was plunder, and joined the force at 

52 



Goliad, while Grant, bedng joined by some twenty men under 
Johnson, proceeded on a foray for horses and cattle in the di- 
rection of Matamoras. 

On the 1st of February, the verv day that the election 
was held for delegates to the general convention to be held at 
Washington, on the Brazos, 1st of March, General Santa Anna 
set out from Saltillo, in Cohahuil^, on his route to the Rio 
Grande, where an army of 8,000 of the best disciplined men 
was to be assembled for the purpose of invading Texas and driv- 
ing every American colonist bcvond the Sabinie, 

Santa Anna's confidential adviser was his aide-de-camp, 
Colonel Almonte, whose former visit to the colonies in 1834 
gave him advices favorable to strategic movements amongst the 
colonists. Second in command to Santa Anna was General 
Vicinte Filisola (by birt.h an Italian), a veteran of the Mexican 
revolution. Attached to the army were also Generals Sesma, 
IJrrea, Gaona, Tolsa, Andrade, Woll and Cos, the last of whom 
dishonorably violated the conditions of his parole made with 
General Burleson at the capture of San Antonio de Bexar: "That 
the}' would not in any way oppose the re-establishment of the 
Federal Constitution of 1824," The artillery train was un- 
usually large, including mortars, and was commanded by Colonel 
Ampudia. The engineer in charge was Colonel Louis Tola. 

There was an immense amount of baggage, with several 
thousand mules and horses for transportation, and a vast amount 
of ordnance stores. Indeed, all the preparations were on a grand 
scale, that contrasted strangely with the hosts before whom battle 
was to be made and war waged. 

Every effort had been made by the wiley Santa Anna to in- 
flame the Indian tribes on the north to renewed hostilities against 
the settlers, as Vv^ell as specially appealing to the envoys of the 
irnited States to completely control the neutrality of their gov- 
ernment, and prevent aid and compact to the colonists of Texas. 
The Mexican consul at New Orleans gave public notice, by di- 

53 



rectiou of his government, that the Mexican government had 
declared that armed foreigners Landing on the coast of the Repub- 
lic, or invading its territory by land, being citizens of no nation 
with which Mexico was at war, would be deemed pirates and dealt 
with as such, and that a like punishment would be awarded to all 
foreigners who should introduce, either by land or sea, arms or 
ammunition of any kind for the use of the rebels. 

The United States had in like manner issued instructions to 
its officers and agents to observe strict neutrality between the 
parties concerned, and to let no violations of the neutral compact 
go by unpunished. 

But like in all struggles where freemen are engaged against 
tyrants, when liberty is suppressed by oppression, the heart of 
the American beats quick and fierce to engage in the struggle for 
justice and right. So now, the volunteer vans began to arrive on 
Texas soil and fall into line under the command of the Texas 
officers. 

The arrival of small bands of patriots armed for the fray was 
a brilliant incentive to the nerves of the patriotic Texans, who 
received their coming with shouts of joy and promised to share 
their fate, and in event of victory, to share their lovely land and 
its broad domain. 

So every brave heart became a Texan when landing on the 
fertile soil. As in after years, those who seek her climate, are to 
the manor born. 

On the 12th of February, 1836, General Santa Anna ar- 
rived at the Rio Grande, where he halted until the 16th. Early 
in February Don Placido Benevides, a Mexican Federalist, in- 
formed Colonel Fannin, through the colonists at San Patricio, 
that the Mexican troops from Matamoras, over 2000 strong, were 
gathering rapidly in all directions. The whole country was given 
up to the troops, and the most atrocious outrages were perpe- 
trated on the inoffensive people of the country. Colonel Fannin 
wrote to the Provisional Government at San Filipe, giving in 

54 



detail the dispatch from San Patricio, and urged the colonists to 
arouse from their apathy; that the foe was upon our soil and at 
our very door. 

He had sent a detachment to San Patricio to bring off the 
artillery, and ordered a concentration of the troops at Goliad, and 
he intended to provide for the defense of that post and San 
Antonio de Bexar, and keeping open a communication with the 
colonists. In conclusion he said: "Let me implore you to lose 
no time and spare no expense in spreading these tidings through- 
out Texas, and ordering out the mihtia in mass, and spare us, in 
God's name, from elections in camp — organize at home and 
march forward in order. * * * X^ook well to our coast. 
Now is the time to use our small navy, and that to advantage, 
and unless soon afloat, we may fear the worst." 

Another communication, dated February 16th, was received 
by the government council from Fannin, in which he informed 
them that the enemy intended to enter the country in three di- 
visions, one to take San Antonio de Bexar, under Generals Sesma, 
Filisola and Cos; one against Goliad, under Urrea, and the third 
under Santa Anna himself, which, after aiding, if required, in the 
reduction of San Antonio de Bexar and Goliad, was to proceed 
directly into the heart of the colonies. 

He requested them to send from twelve to fifteen hundred 
men immediately to Bexar, with plenty of provisions, and from 
five to eight hundred to Goliad, and then with an army of re- 
serves on the Colorado, all would be well. "Go ahead, rely on 
yourselves and the aims of your men. No aid need be expected 
from the Mexicans." 

"General Santa Anna moved from the Rio Grande on the 
16th, and at half past twelve o'clock on the 23d of February, 
1836, halted on the heights of the Alazan, three miles west of 
San Antonio de Bexar. The whole of the invading army was 
ordered to concentrate at this place, with the exception of a di- 
vision under General Urrea, which had marched from Matamoras 

55 



for San Patricio and Goliad. At two o'clock, according to Col- 
onel Almonti's journalj the Mexican army resumed its marcli, 
the President and his staff in the van. 

"The enemy, as soon as the march of the division was seen, 
hoisted the tri-colored (Mexican) flag, with two stars, designed 
to represent Cohahuila and Texas. The President, with all his 
staff, advanced to the burying ground (now San Fernando ceme- 
tery). The enemy lowered his flag and fled, and Bexar was occu- 
pied without iring a shot. 

"At 3 o'clock p. m. the enemy filed off to the fort of the 
Alamo, where there were some pieces of artillery, among them 
one eighteen pounder. It appeared they had 150 men." 

The Texas forces in the Alamo were under the command of 
Colonel Wm. Barrett Travis, assisted by Colonels James Bowie 
and Davy Crockett. When the fort was invested and the siege 
began, Travis wrote a dispatch to the executive council at San 
Filipe and sent it by special courier, asking for men and muni- 
tions of war. 

In another letter of 24th Travis avowed his determination 
never to surrender or retreat, though the enemy threatened to 
put the garrison to the sword unless they surrendered at discre- 
tion. And if no rescue came he was determined to sustain himself 
as long as possible and die like a soldier, who never forgets what 
is due to his own honor and that of his country. 

On the 3d of March Travis wrote his last letter to the Presi- 
dent of the convention at Washington, on the Brazos, and the 
last letter to the living world, which appeals to the hearts of ail 
men. When he penned it he did not know that the Conventior 
of Texas patriots had on the day before proclaimed to all the 
'\ or 1(1 by solemn resolutions ^he independence of Texas, and that 
the oingle star should foreyer float in the colors of her standard. 
It so, Travis would have died truly a happier man. We give his 
letter place in this brief sketch, showing the events surrounding 
the besieged from the 25th of February to the 3d of March : 

66 



"From the 25th to the present date the enemy have kept up 
a. bombardment from two howitzers (one a five and a half inch 
and the other an eight inch), and a heavy cannonade from two 
long nine pounders mounted on a battery on the opposit-e side of 
the river, at the distance of four hundred yards from our walls. 
During this period the enemy have been busily employed in en- 
circling us with intrenched encampments at the following dis- 
tances: In Bexar, 400 yards west; in La Villeta, 300 yards 
south ; at the powder house 1000 yards east by south ; on the ditch, 
800 yards northeast, and at the old mill, 800 yards north. Not- 
withstanding all this, a company of thirty-two men from Gon- 
zales made their way to us on the morning of the 1st inst. at 3 
o'clock, and Colonel J. B. Bonham (a courier from the same 
place), got in this morning at 11 o'clock. 

"I have so fortified the place that the walls are generally 
proof against cannon balls, and I still continue to intrench in the 
inside and strengthen the walls bv throwing up earth. At least 
200 shells have fallen inside our walls without having injured a 
single man. Indeed, we have been so fortunate as not to lose a 
man from any cause, and we have killed many of the enemy. 
The spirits of my men are still high, although they have much to 
depress them. 

"Colonel Fannin is said to be on the march to this place with 
reinforcements, but I fear it is not true, as I have repeatedly sent 
to him for aid without receiving any. Colonel Bonham, my spe^ 
cial messenger, arrived at La Bahia (Goliad) fourteen days ago 
with a request for aid, and on the arrival of the enemy in Bexar 
I sent an express to Colonel Fannin, which reached Goliad on 
the next day, urging him to send on reinforcements. None have 
yet 'arrived. I look to the colonies alone for aid ; unless it arrives 
soon, I shall have to fight the enemy on his own terms. I will, 
however, do the best I can under the circumstances, and I feel 
confident that the determined spirit and desperate courag'e hereto- 
fore evinced bv mv men, will not fail them in the last struggle, 

57 



and although they may be sacrificed to the vengeance of a Gothic 
-enemy, the victory will cost that enemy so dear that it will be 
worse than a defeat. 

"I hope your honorable body will hasten on reinforcements, 
.ammunition and provisions for twenty days for the men we have; 
our supply of ammunition is limited. At least 500 pounds of 
cannon powder and 200 rounds of six, nine and twelve and 
eighteen pound balls; ten kegs of rifle powder and a supply of 
lead should be sent to this place without delay under a sufficient 
.guard. 

"If these things are promptly sent, and large reinforcements 
are hastened to this frontier, this neighborhood will be the great 
and decisive battle ground. 

"The power of Santa Anna is to be met here or in the 
colonies; we had better meet it here than to suffer a war of deso- 
lation to rage in our settlements. A blood-red banner waves 
from the church of Bexar, and in the camp' above us, in token that 
ithe war is one of vengeance against rebels; they have declared 
us as such, and demand that we should surrender at discretion, 
or this garrison should be put to the sword. Their threats have 
no influence on me or mv men, but to make all fight with despera- 
tion, and with that high-souled courage which characterizes the 
patriot, who is willing to die in defense of his country's liberty 
and his own honor. 

"The citizens of this municipality are all our enemies, ex- 
cept those who joined us heretofore; we have but three Mexicans 
in the fort. Those who have not joined us in this extremity 
should be declared public enemies, and their property should aid 
in defraying the expenses of the war. The bearer of this will 
give your honorable body a statement more in detail, should he 
escape through the enemy's lines. God and Texas! Victory or 
Death!!" 

Perhaps it would be well to give to the reader the version 
from the enemy's side of the transactions of the siege and in- 

58 



vestments from the 24th of February up to the 4th of March, 
which are given in extracts from Colonel Almonte's journal, the 
aide-de-camp of Santa Anna, and one of the most enlightened and 
intelligent officers in the Mexican army, and who spoke English 
fluently : 

"Thursday, 25th. The firing from our batteries was com- 
menced early. The general-in-chief, with the battalion de Caza- 
dores, crossed the river and posted themselves in the Alamo, that 
is to say, in the Louse near the fort. A new fortification was 
commenced by us near the house of McMuUen. In the random 
firing the enemy wounded four of the Cazadores de Matamoras 
battalion, and two of the battalion of Ximines, and killed one cor- 
poral and a soldier of the battalion of Matamoras. Our fire ceased 
in the afternoon. In the night two batteries were erected by us 
on the other side of the river, in the Alameda of the Alamo; the 
battalion of Matamoras was also posted there, and the cavalry 
was posted on the hills to the east of the enemy and in the road 
from Gonzales at the Casa Mata Antiqua. At half-past eleven 
at night we retired. The enemy in the night burnt the straw and 
wooden houses in their vicinity, but did not attempt to set fire 
with their guns to those in our rear. A strong north wind com- 
menced at nine at night. 

"Friday, 26th. The northern wind continued very strong; 
the thermometer fell to 39 defrreas, and during the rest of the 
day remained at 60 degrees. At daylight there was a slight 
skirmish between the enemy and a small party of the division of 
the east, under command of General Sesma. During the day the 
firing from our cannon was continued. The enemy did not reply 
except now and then. At night the enemy burnt the small 
houses near the parapet of the battalion of San Luis, on the other 
side of the river. Some sentinels were advanced. In the course 
of the day the enemy sallied out for wood and water, and were 
opposed by our marksmen. The northern wind continues. 

"Saturday, 27th. Lieutenant Meuchard was sent with a 

59 



party of meiii for com, cattle and hogs to the farms of Seguin and 
Flores. It was determined to cut -off the water from the enemy on 
the side next the old mill. There was little firing from either 
side during the day. The enemy worked hard all day to repair 
some intrenchments. In the afternoon the President was ob- 
served by the enemy and fired at. In the night a courier was 
dispatched to Mexico informing the government of the taking of 
Bexar. 

"Sunday, 28th. News received that a reinforcement of 200 
men was coming to the enemy by the road from La Bahia. The 
cannonading was continued. 

"Monday, 29th. In the afternoon the Battalion of Allende 
took post at the east of the Alamo. The President reconnoitered. 
At midnight General Sesma left the camp with the Cavalry of 
Dolores and the infantry of Allende to meet the enemy comiDg 
from Bahia to the relief of the Alamo. 

"Tuesday, March 1st. Early in the morning General Sesma 
wrote from the Mission Espada that there was no enemy, or traces 
of any, to be discovered. The cavalry and infantry returned to 
camp. At twelve o'clock the President went out to reoonnoiter 
the mill site to the northwest of the Alamo. Colonel Ampudia 
was commissioned to construct more trenches. In the afternoon 
the enemy fired two twelve-pound shots at the house of the 
President, one of which struck it. 

"Wednesday, 2d. * * * The President discovered in 
the afternoon a covered road within pistol shot of the Alamo, 
and posted the Battalion of Ximines there. 

"Thursday, 3d. The enemy fired a few cannon and musket 
shot at the city. I wrote to Mexico, directing my letters to be 
sent to Bexar — that before three months the campaign would be 
ended. The general-in-chief went out to reconnoiter. A battery 
was erected on the north of the Alamo, within pistol chot. Of- 
ficial dispatches w^ere received from Urrea, announcing that he 
had routed the colonists of San Patricio, killing sixteen and tak- 

60 



ing twenty-one prisonei's. The bells were rung. The Battalion 
of Zapadores, Aldama and Tohica arrived. The enemv attempt- 
ed a sally in the night, at sugar mill, but were repulsed by our 
advance. 

"Friday, 4:th. Commenced firing early, which the enemy 
did not return. In the afternoon one or two shots were fired by 
them. A meeting of generals and colonels was held. After a 
long conference Cos, Costrillion and others were of the opinion 
that the Alamo should be assaulted after the arrival of two 
twelve poimders, expected on the 7th inst. The President, Cen- 
erala Ramirez, Sesma and myself, were of opinion that the twelve 
pounders should not be waited for, but the assault made. In this 
state things remained, the general not coming to any definite 
resolution." 

Reinforcements were arriving daily to Santa Anna, until 
his force at San Antonio de Bexar amounted to more than 7000 
men, well supplied with all the munitions of war. 

Travis and his brave band of patriots were cooped up in the 
confines of the Alamo, barricaded and cut off from all supplies of 
wood and water. 

Their constant strain of watching night and day, for S^anta 
Anna had his bugle to sound the charge every half hour during 
the night time, well wore down the physical energies of the little 
garrison, but did not blur their spirits. Poor Bowie had been 
previously wounded and was suffering from that and a high fever, 
and was in one room of the Alamo, attended by Mrs. Dickinson 
and an old Mexican woman, his nurse. Madam Ciandelara.* 

On the 5th every indication of the enemy pointed that the 
Alamo would be stormed at anv moment; every man was on 
duty and' ready to do or die. It is stated that Colonel Travis, 
with drawn sword, marked the line across the rude floor of the 



* Mdm. Candelara now lives iu the city of San Antonio, Texas, at 
the age of 112 years, and has given many incidents of the attack and 
the results. 

61 



Alamo and asked all the garrison who would fight till death with 
him, to step across the Dead Line. Tapley Holland was one of the 
first to flit across. Then all marched over except one, Rose, who 
was deeply affected at the action of his companions. 

He stood till every man but himself had crossed the line. 
He sank to the ground in silent reverie. He spoke the Mexican 
language well. He thought if he could once escape the confines 
of the walls he might easily escape the lines. He cast a longing 
look at Colonel Bowie, then to all his comrades. When Bowie ex- 
claimed: "You seem not to be willing to die with us, Rose?" 
"No," he replied, "I am not ready to die," and with the word he 
scaled the walls of the Alamo, and turning to take a last look 
at his companions he heeded no more. He dropped down and 
took the route to the river and made his escape, and in a few 
hours heard the cannons' awful roar and the musketry's rattle 
that sealed the fate of his brave compatriots. 

Colonel Bowie could not walk. He raised up on his elbows 
on his couch and cried out, "Carry me over, too, comrades, we'll 
all die together." 

A more pathetic story was never told ; a more heroic picture 
was never drawn by artist's brush, or in the brain of man. 

Now let loose the dogs of war, and let pandemonium reign ; 
posterity will mark the spot where such heroes are slain. 

Soon after midnight on the 6th of March, 1836, and before 
the matin hymns of the earliest songsters of the brush, the Mex- 
ican army, commanded by Santa Anna in person, with the black 
and red banner of death by the sword floating over his legions, 
surrounded the fort for the purpose of taking it by storm, cost 
what it might. The infantrv formed in a circle, the cavalry in 
a line behind for the double object of pushing them on in the 
charge and preventing the escape of the Texans. 

Santa Anna had issued his final order to all the officers of his 
command, minutely instructing his best infantrv companies to 
lead the charge. 

62 



His order savs in part: *'The first column will be provided 
with ten scaling ladders, tw€ cross bars and two axes; the second 
will be provided with the same quantity ; the third with six and 
the fourth with two. The men carrying the ladders will sling 
guns over their shoulders, so as to leave them entirely free to 
place their ladders wherever they may be directed. Grenadiers 
and cavalry companies will be supplied with six packages of cart- 
ridges to the man, and to the infantr)' companies four, with two 
extra flints. The latter will be encumbered with neither over- 
coats, blankets nor anything which will impede the rapidity of 
their movements. During the day all caps will be provided with 
chin straps. Corps commanders wil] pay particular attention 
to this provision, and are also required to see that the men axe 
provided with shoes or other covering for their feet. 

"The men composing the attacking column will retire to rest, 
at sundown, preparatory to moving at midnight. * * * 
Arms, particularly bayonets, will be put in the best condition. 
When the moon rises the riflemen of the San Louis battalion of 
volunteers will retire to their quarters, abandoning the points 
they cover along the line so as to give them time to put their 
equipage in readiness. The cavalry, under the command of Gen- 
eral Don Joaquin Ramirez Y. Sesma, will occupy the Alameda,, 
and saddle up at 3 o'clock in the morning. It will be their duty 
to watch the camp and prevent the escape of any one who may 
attempt to do so. 

"The honor of the nation and of the army being involved 
in this contest against the daring foreigners in our front, his 
excellency, the general-in-chief, expects that each man will per- 
form his duty and contribute his share in securing a day of glory 
to his country and of honor to the Federal Government, which 
knows how to honor the brave men of the army of operation who 
shall distinguish themselves by performing feats of valor." 

Before daylight the Mexicans i^dvanced towards the Alamo,, 

63 



amidst the sounding of bugle's charge, the wild yells of the ad- 
vancing hord and discharge of musketry and cannon. 

They were thrice repulsed in their attempt to scale the walls 
by the well-directed shots of the Texans. 

Again they were impelled to the charge by the exertions 
of their officers, until they were borne onward by the pressure 
from behind. They moimted the walls with scaling ladders and 
tumbled pell-mell into the vortex of destruction. Travis was on 
the outer wall cheering on his men, when he received a shot and 
fell mortally wounded. A Mexican officer rushed forward to 
dispatch him, when Travis, summoning up all his heroic energies, 
met his assailant with a thrust of his sword and both expired to- 
gether. 

Charge on charge came faster; the clarion notes of the 
bugle's charge were sounded incessantly. The red fire of battle 
is kept up for five long hours amid the slaughter of death. 

The last final charge is made, the whole force is brought to 
bear, the lines are pushed to the front, the walls are scaled. Am- 
munition of the besieged all gone — a hand-to-hand struggle en- 
sues; guns as clubs, swords and bowie knives cut the red gashes in 
deep; slaughter — pandemonium reigns supreme — the vortex of 
hell is opened. All but seven are slain ; they take refuge in one 
comer of the fort and the last sad struggle is had. Major Evans 
of the artillery was shot down and riddled with bayonets while 
in the act of blowing up the magazine in the Alamo, which had 
been ordered by Colonel Travis in the last extremity. Colonel 
Bowie was butchered on his bed and hoisted on, the bayonets and 
his remains savagely mutilated. 

"Among the slain there was one who, surrounded by a heap 
of the fallen enemy, displayed even in death the freshness of 
the hunter's aspect, and whose eccentricities, real or reputed, 
have familiarized the whole world with his name — ^Davy Crock- 
ett of Tennessee; a character such as could only have been pro 

64 



dae€d and perfected within the liraite of his own country. The 
whole man, physical and mental, was of frontier growth. 

''His playthings from infancy were the axe and the rifle. 
Few among his youthful companions displayed more activity and 
strength; none aimed his piece with a steadier hand or truer 

eye."* 

The rudest form of sepulture was denied the dead. Their 
bodies were stiipped, mutilated and carried out on the Alameda 

* Crockett came from Tennessee to Texas in 1835, with twelve vol- 
unteers, who shared his fate. He was in a manner embittered, but 
of fine native sense. He met with reverses in fortune. He was elected 
three times to the United States Congress from his West Tennessee 
District and filled his station there with credit to himself and country. 
He won for himself the great appellation: "Know you are right, and 
then go ahead." When he was defeated for Congress, the last race he 
run 1835. he was determined to leave Tennessee and seek new fields 
In Texas'. He became chagrined over bis defeat for Congress, and 
wrote his recollectons of the same in epic verse, the only poetry he 
ever wrote. He said: 

"Farewell to my country! 

I fought for thee well, 
When the savage rushed forth 

Like the demons from hell. 

In peace or in war 

I have stood by thy side — 
My country for thee, I have 

Lived, would have died. 

But I am now cast off. 

My career is now run, 
And I wander abroad 

Like the prodigal Son: 

Where the wild savage roves. 

And the broad prairies spread. 
The fallen, deposed. 

Will again go ahead." 

Again he wrote: "He who commences the world with a general 
love for mankind, and suffers his feelings to dictate to his reason, 
runs a great hazard of reaping a plentiful harvest of ingratitude, and 
of closing a tedious existence of misanthropy." 

65 



bard by and thrown into a heap and burned. After the flames 
died out some kinder hands took the charred remains and ashes 
and buried them. 

Thus did 176 men for thirteen days repel the onslaughts of 
an army of 7000 men, and in the attacks killing more than 2000 
of the enemy and wounding more than 500, showing the deadly 
aim and desperate struggle made by the "Defenders of the 
Alamo." 

The charge began at 4 o'clock in the morning and lasted till 
9 o'clock, and for five long hours Travis and his brave com- 
patriots held back a foe far more savage than that which con- 
fronted Leonidas and his Spartan braves. 

But "Thermopylae had her messengers of defeat, the Alamo 
had none." 

In later years some kind sympathizers erected a monument 
of stone to the immortal dead who fell in the Alamo. The in- 
scriptions on this feeble shaft are: 

"To the God of the Fearless and the Free is Dedicated this Altar of 

the Alamo. 

Blood of Heroes Hath Stained Mo. 

Let the Stones of the Alamo Speak 

That Their Immolation be Not Forgotten. 

Be They EJnrolled With Leonidas in the Host of the Mighty Dead. 

Thermopylae Had Her Messengers of Defeat — The Alamo had None." 

More lasting than brass or marble, which the beating rains 
and driving snows cannot destroy, and through which the paens 
of glory can be sung for all time — the anthem of their chivalry. 
The beautiful ode was composed in their memory by Captain 
K. M. Potter, U. S. A., retired, entitled, "Hymn of the Alamo" : 



HYMN OF THE ALAMO. 

"Rise! Man the wall! 

Our clarion's blast now sounds the final reveille; 
This dawning mom must be the last 
Our fated band shall ever see. 
To life, but not to hope, farewell: 
Your trumpet's clang, and cannon's peal. 
And storming shout, and clash of steel 
Is our's, but not our country's knell. 
Welcome the Spartan's death — 
'Tis no despairing strife — 
We fall, we die, but our expiring breath 
Is freedom's breath of life. 
Here on this new Thermopylae 
Our monument shall tower on high, 
And 'Alamo' hereafter be 
On bloodier fields the battle cry.' 
Thus Travis from the rampart cried, 
And when his warriors saw the foe. 
Like whelming bellows move below, ' 

At once each dauntless heart replied: 
'Welcome the Spartan's death — 
'Tis no despairing strife — 
We fall, we die, but our expiring breath 
Is freedom's breath of life.' 
They come, like autumn leaves they fall, 
Yet hordes on hordes they onward rush; 
With gory tramp they mount the wall, 
Till numbers the defenders crush; 
The last was felled, the fight to gain- 
Well may the ruflaans quake to tell 
How Travis and his hundred fell 
Amid a thousand foemen slain. 
They died the Spartan's death, 
But not In hopeless strife like brother's died — 
And their expiring breath 
Was freedom's breath of life." 



67 



THE SIEGE OF THE ALAMO. 
BY JAMES D. LYNCH. 

The old world has its glory, and it teems 

With storiecl song and history's golden themes. 

Whose notes still tune the living harp of time, 

And thrill the patriot's heart in every clime. 

But yet the Old World has not all— the New 

Can boast of its immortal themes, and view 

With pride the glory of many a name 

Which it has given to the scroll of fame. 

'Mong those full high enrolled, let Texas tell 

Of the New World's Leonidas — how fell 

Brave Travis, how his comrades at the call 

Of glory, fell in one grand, glorious fall. 

«*♦***• 

In her far borders, under Bexar's skies, 

Where the San Pedro takes its gushing rise, 

Bosomed in landscapes of Elysian beam, 

A fortress nestled near the emerald stream; 

Where orisons were wont to make the day, 

But now the ensanguined scene of mortal fray. 

Within its walls a chapel reared its shrine; 

Around them Mexic demons drew their line, 

While Travis and his Texans held the post, 

Defiant of the fierce besieging host. 

The thundering cannon swept the crimson ground, 

While volleying muskets poured their hail around; 

The vengeful missiles charged the fortress walls. 

Its little windows rained a shower of balls. 

Seven thousand men came on in curved array: 

Less than two hundred held the force at bay. 

Ten days and nights they reeled and staggered back, 

Two hundred men, less twenty, aimed in front and fired, 

Two hundred men, less forty, faced about and fired; 

One hundred men, less twenty, faced to right and fired. 

One hundred men, less forty, faced to left and fired, 

Then forty men faced all around and fired. 

And front, right, left and rear the foe retired. 

Now twenty men received the last assault. 

And caused the decimated foe to halt. 

But stemming now the dwindling fusilade, 

68 




MONUMENT TO THE DEFENDERS OF THE ALAMO. 



And overleaping scrap and palisade, 

They thronged the walls, and through the breaches poured; 

And yet the Lone Star banner was not lowered. 

Within one thing remained, ail else was lost — 

To barter life for death at dearest cost. 

"Blow up the fort!" undaunted Travis cried; 

"Blow up the fort!" he gasped in death and died. 

A faithful soldier hastened to obey. 

But fell before the deed could crown the day. 

With mutual death the unequal combat end, 

A friend and foe in one blank ruin blend. 

Within the breach the last heroic ten 

Now meet the enemy — devoted men! 

One moment more, one breath, one flash, now five 

Alone of all those martyrs were alive— 

Now four, now three, now two, now one, now none — 

The Alamo's red murderous work was done. 

* * ♦ ♦ • * * 

Live on, grow old, thou glorious Alamo! 

Grow old in age, for thou canst never grow 

Too old for fame, its wreaths will cling to thee. 

Thou New World's glorious Thermopylae! 

Live on, speak on, of heralds thou hast none, 

Thy tale is all thy own; but the bright sun 

Was witness of thy struggle, morning, noon 

And in the evening shade the stars and moon 

Beheld thee, and their pale, condoling beams 

Yet mantle thee with still more wierd dreams. 

Thy very walls have voices, solemn tones. 

And spirits pulse their breathing in thy stones; 

Not moans, for I place to them my ears 

I hear the echo of Jacinto's cheers. 

On! On! Revenge the Alamo! 

Freedom and victory over every foe. 

Live on, speak on, thou glorious Alamo, 

In living strains proclaim thy tale of woe, 

And let thy widowed walls to Texas tell 

How her immortal heroes fought and fell, 

And in obedience to her sacred laws, 

But love of freedom and of freedom's cause. 

Speak on. while eons roll their ages by, 

And tell all Texans how to live and die. 



69 



CHAPTER TV. 



Texas Independence Proclaimed — The Annulment of Land Grants by 
Convention — Provision for Bounty in Lands for Military Services — 
Forces Under Fannin at Goliad — Houston's Order to. Evacuate — 
XJrrea's March on to Refugio — Fannin's Scouts Captured — Evac- 
uation and Retreat Towards Victoria— Fight on the Colito — Sur- 
render of Fannin^Massacre at Goliad of Fannin and His Men. 

Ob the Sd of March, 1836, the convention assembled at 
Washington on the Brazos, agreed unanimously to a declaration 
of independence. After setting forth their grievances against 
Mexico, and the misrule and tryanny of the government towards 
the colonists, the declaration concludes: ''These and other griev- 
ances were patiently home by the people of Texas until they 
reached that point at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. 
We then took up arms in defense of the national constitution. 

"We appealed to our Mexican brethren for assistance; our 
appeal has been made in vain. Though months have elapsed, 
no sympathetic response has yet been heard from the interior. 
We are consequently forced to the melancholy conclusion that 
the Mexican people have acquiesced in the destruction of their 
liberty, and the substitution thereof of a military government; 
that they are unfit to be free, and incapable of self-government. 
The necessity of self-preservation now decrees our eternal po- 
litical separation. 

"We, therefore, the delegates, with plenary powers, of the 
people of Texas, in solemn convention assctmbled, appealing to 
a candid world for the necessities of our condition, do hereby re- 

70 



solve and declare that our political connection with the Mexican 
nation has forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now 
constitute a Free, Sovereign and Independent RepubKc, and are 
fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly 
belong to independent states; and conscious of the rectitude of 
our intentions, we fearlessly and confidently commit the issue 
to tbe decision of the Supreme Arbiter of the destinies of na- 
tions." 

Under the ordinances of the convention, passed 16th March, 
1836, David G. Burnet was appointed the first President of tho 
Kepublic, Lorenzo de Zavala Vice President, Colonel S. P. Car- 
son, Secretary of State, Bailey Hardiman Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, Colonel Thos. J. Kuske Secretary of War, Colonel Robert 
Potter Secretary of the Navy, David Thomas Attorney General, 
J. E,. Jones Postmaster General. During the sitting of the con- 
vention the illegal land sales of the legislature of Cohahuila and 
Texas to lands in Texas and the claims of volunteers from the 
United States came under consideration. The convention de- 
clared null and void the grants to more than eleven hundred 
leagues of land granted to General John F. Mason, of New York, 
and other foreign holders, besides all eleven league grants made 
within twenty leagues of the boundary between Texas and the 
United States. 

The convention fixed a liberal bounty in lands to volunteers 
in addition to their pay and rations: To all in service and who 
should continue in service faithfully during the war, 1280 acres 
of land ; to all who had served, or should serve faithfully for a 
period of not less than six months, 640 acres; to all who had 
served not less than three months, 320 acres; to all who should 
enter the service previous to the first of Jiily, and continue to 
serve faithfully during the war, provided the war endured for a 
periotl of more than six months, 960 acres; to the lawful heirs of 
all volunteers as had fallen, or might fall in the contest mth the 
Mexican government, or who had died or might die from any 

71 



accident while in the service of the country during the war, the 
amounts which would have been due the deceased under the 
colonization laws, had he survived, namely, to married man, one 
league and labor (4604 acres); for single man, one-third of a 
league (1467 acres), and the said heir or heirs should also receive, 
in addition to the land thus granted, a bounty of 460 acres, as 
decreed by the council at San Felipe on 11th December, 1835.* 

After the fall of the Alamo, the whole of the auxiliary vol- 
untary army of Texas did not amount to much over 400 men, 
who were under Fannin at Goliad. The men who had whipped 
the Mexicans in the campaign of 1835, and won the signal victory 
at the storming of Bexar, did not display the same zeal to hurl 
back the invader. 

The country was being overrun. The army was massing at 
various points for conquest. Many who had families were en- 
deavoring to put the defenseless ones beyond the reach of the foe. 

But Travis and Fannin had sounded the tocsin of war faith- 
fully; they had viewed the surroundings from a strong military 
standpoint, which placed their military sagacity equal to any 
of the enlightened age. So fully were they convinced that the 
enemy should be met and conquered at San Antonio de Bexar 
and Goliad, and that their patriotic friends would rally to their 
defense at such points, they held out to the last in defense of their 
post till death came to their relief. 

While Santa Anna was concentrating his forces at Bexar, 
General Ilrrea was proceeding with his forces along the lower 
line at Goliad. 

Colonels Johnson and Grant, of whom mention has hereto- 
fore been made, made incursions into the enemy's lines, and 
were surprised by the Mexicans and all but Johnson and another 
killed. These two effected their escape. 



* Spanish or Mexican land measure: One league, 4.428 acres. One 
labor, 177 acres. One mile square, 640 acres. One vara, 33 1^3 inches. 

72 




GEN'L Sa\NTA anna. 



Tlie commander-in-chief, General Houston, had early in 
March established his headquarters at Gonzales, where his whole 
strength did not consist of over 300 men, some without guns and 
poorly equipped. Hearing of the fall of the Alamo and the fate 
of its heroic garrison, he retired on the 10th from the Guadalupe 
river to the Colorado, to obtain reinforcements and supplies. He 
destroyed all the immovable property at Gonzales. 

Orders were dispatched by General Houston to Colonel 
Fannin, directing him to abandon Goliad and fall back to Vic- 
toria. Unfortunately for Fannin and his men, these orders were 
not obeyed in time. Fannin ha\'ing heard of the advance of the 
jyfexican forces on the Mission of Refugio, he ordered Captain 
King with a detachment of fourteen men to remove some help- 
less families to a place of safety. 

When King approached Refugio, he found himself in the 
presence of the enemy. After baffling around quite a time, night 
came on, and he became bewildered and lost his way, and when 
daylight came he was in sight of the enemy, ammunition wet; he 
had no other remedy but surrender. He and all his men were 
taken by LTrrea and shot within six hours, save one that had 
been mortally wounded in the fight. 

A courier sent out by Fannin to hasten the return of the 
detachment shared same fate, No tidings from King, Fannin 
sent out another and larger detachment towards Refugio, com- 
posed of the battalion of Lieutenant Colonel Ward, the second in 
command at Goliad. Ward had two engagements with the 
enemy. In the first he was victorious. In, the second he was 
overpowered and forced to surrender. 

Fannin's original force consisted of not more than 480 men, 
his numbers being so thinned out, and being opposed by Urrea's 
division of over two thousand well equipped regulars, was in 
danger of being overwhelmed. 

An urgent order from General Houston, calling on Colonel 
Fannin to evacuate Goliad, reached him on March 14th, 1836. 

73 



Captain Horton had been sent out to reconnoiter, and found the 
forces of Urrea fast encircling thiem. 

He and other officers advised Fannin to evacuate Goliad 
without delay, while they had some hope of joining forces with 
General Houston. 

Still hoping that Ward would come in, who led a volunteer 
battalion from Georgia, Fannin, being also a Georgian, lingered 
until the morning of the 18th, when early the advance guard 
under Horton led the van. Some Avanted the cannon left, as it 
could only be moved by oxen. Fannin replied, "No, my cannon 
must go with me. I expect a fight, and I cannot do without 
them." An eye witness says: ''The only American non-com- 
batant residing at Goliad (Mrs. (^asb) accompanied the troops 
in the retreat. It was ten o'clock ere the rear guard had crossed 
the river (San Antonio), and they hastened towards Victoria., 
until Fannin, judging it time to give his oxen rest, ordered a halt 
and had them ungeared for an hour; after which preparations 
were made for a second move, but alas! * * * Our men 
saw at a glance that their only hope rested in their courage and 
decision; and they threw themselves into a hollow square; facing 
outwards. 

''The effect of a piece of artillery, fired against Fannin's 
orders, satisfied Urrea, who had no cannon on the ground, that to 
win the day he must come to close quarters; he therefore ordered 
a charge of cavalry. They galloped in dashing style towards the 
Texan battery, when they were broken by a discharge from seven 
pieces. The shock was sudden, they halted, drew up their horees 
and faltered when encouraged to return to the charge." 

A charge and counter charge made by the cavalry, assisted 
by the infantry, kept up the fight till late at night. Some Cam- 
pechey Indians with Un-ea kept up a murderous sneak firing on 
the Texans. 

The wounded of Fannin's men suffered agonies all night for 
want of water, and their piteous appeals for aid made it heart-- 

74 



rending txj hear, and discomfited those who had passed unhurt. 
During the whole night the Mexican general caused his bugles to 
sound at intervals of five minutes, to keep his troops on the look- 
out. The Texans threw up temporary works for protection 
against musketry. But during the night Urrea had been rein- 
forced by 600 fresh troops, with a supply of artillery. 

The small entrenchment which Fannin's men threw up dur- 
ing the night was no defense in such extremity. The loss to the 
enemy on the previous engagements was over 600 men, killed and 
v;ounded. Fannin knew the struggle prolonged, would be 
another Alamo massacre. He hasitily oalled a council of war with 
his officers, amid the cries of his wounded, begging an armistice 
that water might be secured for their feverish wounds. Mrs. 
Cash and her little son went to General Urrea and asked for 
water. It was then a white flag went up in token of surrender. 
Immediately afterwards Captains Shackelford and Chadwick, the 
engineer and adjutant, advanced out on the prairie, and met 
Urrea, with whom they arranged terms of surrender. Personal 
safety was guaranteed to every individual. All were to be treated 
as prisoners of war in civilized warfare, and private property was 
to be respected. 

When Shackelford returned to the battalion and announced 
the result, the men threw down their arms on the ground, Fannin 
alone reserving his sword, which he handed to Urrea, who had 
advanced to receive it. 

It was positively maint^ned by the Texans, and supported by 
three of the survivors of Fannin's force, that terms of capitula- 
tion had been agreed upon and signed by the Mexican and Texan 
commanders. These terms provided that Fannin and his men 
should march back to Goliad and detained nine days, when all the 
volunteers from the United States were to be shipped to New 
Orleans at the expense of the Mexican government, when Fannin 
and the colonists under his command were to remain prisoners 
of war until exchanged or the contest was over. 

75 



Sanba Anna denied that quarter was ever offered, or a treaty 
made, and backed his assertion by the following statement from 
General ITrrea's official report: 

"Being in sight of Goliad (where Fannin was stationed), I 
was informed that the enemy was on the retreat towards Victoria, 
which was not perceived before on account of a very thick fog. I 
immediately followed in pursuit and overtook him at a place 
called Encinal del Perdido, where we fought him until night. 
On the next day we received part of our artillery and infantry, 
with which we continued the action. 

"Fannin then, seeing his inevitable loss, hoisted a white flag 
and sent a paper, written with pencil, containing some articles, 
offering to surrender if they were guaranteed, etc., to which I 
answered in the negative, adding that if they did not instantly 
surrender we would renew the action. 

"Fannin then surrenderd and gave up his arms, etc., leav- 
ing everything in the possession of General Urrea, who sent the 
wounded and prisonei's to Goliad and proc^eeded on to Victoria."* 

"About 400 Texan prisoners, including those of Ward's de- 
tachment, were at the fort of Goliad (the old mission), when Gen- 
eral Santa Anna ordered their execution, in accordance, as he 
afterwards declared, with the law of the Supreme Government. 
On the morning of the 27th of March these prisoners, with the 
exception of two or three medical men, who were retained to 
aid the Mexican wounded, and some privates employed as labor- 
ers, were marched out of the fort, ostensibly for the purpose of 
driving in beeves. They were divided into sections, and each 
section was under the escort of a strong Mexican guard. After 
proceeding about 300 yards, they were ordered to halt, and throw 
off their blankets and knapsacks. Before they had time to obey 
the 6rder, a fire of musketry was opened upon them, and what 
the bullets left unfinished the sabers of the cavalry completed. 

* Letter dated Velasco, May 26, 1836, signed by General Antoiaio 
de Lopez de Santa Anna, to the President of Texas. 

76 



A few who were uninjured by the first fire, leaped a fence of 
brushwood, concealed themselves in a thicket, and swinuning the 
San Antonio river, succeeded in rejoining their countrymen be- 
yond the Colorado. 

''Fannin, wounded in tlie action of the 19th, had been placed 
apart from his men. Informed of the order of the Mexican 
commander, he declared himself ready to meet his fate. When 
he arrived at the appointed shambles, he thrust aside the hand of 
.a soldier who was trying to bind a handkerchief around his 
head, laid bare his breast and fell." 

Most of the bodies were burnt and afterwards, in June fol- 
lowing. General Rusk and the Texan troops collected the skele- 
tons and remains and buried them with the honors of war. Never 
were Spartan bands encompassed with ruder foes. Never human 
phalanx bore a steadier front than did Fannin 'e men around 
Goliad. 

The Georgia battalion that had come organized to do battle 
for Texas, commanded by the brave and intrepid Ward, went to 
the altar of death together ^vith Fannin and his men, and on that 
altar fed by human sacrifice was kindled into a glowing heat the 
freedom and independence of Texas, for without an Alamo and a 
Goliad there never would have been a San Jacinto. 

'J here is no reason whatever for ]:)elieving that Fannin and 
his followers would have laid down their arms to the foe if that 
foe had been fighting under no quarter. They were rot men to 
yield themselves up like sheep for the slaughter. The phrase 
"capitulado" used by General Filisola in alluding to Urrea^ re- 
port of their capture, shows his belief that the stipulations had 
preceded their surrender. 

All the volunteers who escaped from the butchery made the 
same statements as to the stipulations. 

In speaking of Urrea's course in these barbarous crimes, 
General Filisola said : "For every one of these skirmishes at San 
Patricio, Refugio and Encinal del Perdido Urrea deserved a court 
martial and condign punishment, for having assassinated a num- 
ber of brave soldiers, as he might have obtained the same results 

without this sacrifice." 

77 



CHAPTER Y. 



Houston's Retreat Across the Colorado — March of Santa Anna's Army 
to Harrisburg — The Scout of Houston Capturing the Courier ot 
Filisola to Santa Anna — Houston's Information. Led Him to De- 
termine a Battle — Account of the March of the Mexican Army — 
Houston's Diplomacy — Forces Meet— Preparatory for Battle — The 
Battle on Plains of San Jacinto — Courier to Refugees — Santa Anna's 
Capture and Results. 

When General Houston heard of the fall of the Alamo and 
the fate of Travis and the whole garrison in the fort, he ordered 
all his forces from Gonzales to fall back across the Colorado river, 
oarrjing with them everything that was transportable. Many 
families in the country were left exposed to the ravages of the 
enemy. Couriers were sent in all directions to warn the settlers 
to protect themselves and property from the ruthless invaders. 
Everything at the homes was hastily prepared for transportation. 
Women, children, old men and slaves were all put in the advance 
of Houston's retreat. The scene was a wild and weird one; 
homes devastated and abandoned, and often burned; the sad 
faces of the fleeing refugees depicted despair. 

The followers of Houston and the bearers of Texas' consti- 
tutional banner were in doubt of keeping in check the march of 
Santa Anna's victorious legions, whose leader was flushed with 
the victories at the Alamo and over Fannin and O'olonel Grant 
at Goliad, did not believe that further resistance would be offered 
to his march, and that the war was virtually at an end, and began 
to apportion his forces to different parts for taking possession of 
Texas. 

78 




CO 

z 

HI 
N 

H 

O 

Z 
< 

o 

X 

UJ 



"On the 11th of March he caused Generals Sesma and Woll 
to move in order to occupy San Filipe de Austin, with instruc- 
tions to continue on to Harrisburg and Anahuac, with the Bat- 
talions of Aldama, Matamoras and Toluca, fifty dragoons from 
the regiment of Dolores, two six-pounders and rations for eight 
days, this section forming an entire force of 725 men. He 
ordered, on the same dav. Colonel Juan Morales to march for 
Goliad with the Battalions of San Luis and Ximines, one twelve 
pounder, one eight-pounder, one mortar and rations for a month. 
Advices from General Sesma announced the disposition of the 
enemy to defend the pass of the river Colorado with 1200 men, 
and information was received from Colonel Urrea of his de- 
parture from San Patricio to Goliad, which it was said the Texana 
had fortified with the intention to resist with 500 infantry and 
fourteen pieces of artillery of various calibre. 

"In consequence of this intelligence General Santa Anna 
.ordered General Tolso to reinforce Sesma with the Battalion of 
Guerrero, the first battalion of regular militia of Mexico, and 
forty dragoons of Tampico, and he sent Colonel Cayetano Mou- 
tayo to reinforce Urrea with the regular militia from Tres Villas 
and Gueretaro, and a twelve pounder, all these troops carrying 
rations for a month." 

Santa Anna's hopes were heisrhtened in these movements 
when he learned of the capitulation of Faanin with all his force 
of men and munitions of war to General Urrea on the road to Vic- 
toria from Goliad. 

On the 24th of March General Gaona was ordered to 
J^acogdoches with the battahon of Morelos and militia of Guana- 
juato, two four pounders and twenty frontier dragoons, fifty con- 
victs and forty days' rations. The strength for this division was 
725 men. 

Fully believing the contest was at an end, made these 
preparations for the permanent occupation of Texas, and be- 
lieving that his presence was no longer needed in the country, was 

79 



preparing to retum to the City of Mexico and resigning the com- 
mand to Genera] Filisola. 

"With tliis understanding he ordered Genera] Urrea, on 
the 25th of March, to scour all points on the coast from Guada- 
lupe, Victoria to Galveston, with the knowledge that his left wing 
was to be covered by the division of General Sesma; and that, 
under his most strict responsibility, he should fu]fi]l the orders of 
the government, shooting all the prisoners; and as regards those 
lately made (Fannin and his men), that he should order the com- 
mandant at Goliad to execute them, the same instractions being 
given to Gaona and Sesma with respect to all found with arms 
in their hands, and to force those who had not taken up arms to 
leave the country."* 

Santa Anna had ordered a large amount of his cavalry to get 
in readiness to leave Texas on the 1st of Apri] for San Luis 
Potosi. 

Filisola addressed remonstrances to Santa Anna, through the 
latter's confidentia] aide-de-camp. Colonel Almonte, and some 
statements made to him by Sesma, who was operating on the right 
bank of the Colorado, induced him to relinquish his plans of de- 
parture and sending part of his cavalry and infantry to Mexico. 

"Oounte/rmanding his instructions to Gaona, he ordered that 
general on the 25th of March, after passing the Colorado at the 
town of Bastrop, to move towards San Filipe de Austin. Direct- 
ing Urrea to pass the Colorado at Matagorda and advance to 
Brazoria, he decided on concluding in person the remaining op- 
erations." 

"On the 29th of March the battalion of Zapadores and that 
of Guadalajara, under Colonel Amat, marched from San Antonio 
de Bexar in the direction of Gonzales, with two eight-pounders, 
two four pounders, a howitzer and rations for a month. Generals 
Santa Anna and Filisola, with the staff, followed on the 31st." 



* Repres&ntacion de General Filisola, pp. 10-11. 

80 



General Houston had rnartialed his small army of brave bnt 
(ietexmined men, not numbering' over 13G0 men, at Beason's 
Ferry on the Colorado, where h^ had halted to enable the non- 
combatant refugees to cross and get well under way to the Brazoe. 
When this was accomplished his scouts brought the news that 
the Mexican forces were moving in two directions against him. 
He knew to hazard a fight on the banks of the Colorado would 
imperil his fate, like Fannin, and leave all Texas to the mercy of 
the inflated and furious foe. On the 27th he ordered a retreat 
to San Filipe and sheltered himself by guarding the crossings on 
the Brazos. Leaving a part of hie force at San Filipe, he for- 
warded another detachment to Fort Bend, about half way be- 
tween Columbia and San Filipe, while he moved with his main 
body to Groce's Ferry, which was the best and easiest crossing 
on the Brazos, and one which the Mexican army would most 
likely attempt a crossing. He secured a small steamboat, the 
Yellowstone, lying at this point, by which he was enabled to 
move to any part of the river where the enemy might appear. 
On the 29th of March some scouts under Captain Baker, who 
commanded at San Filipe, mistook a bunch of cattle for the 
Mexican cavalry within a few miles of the town, which struck 
consternation to the inhabitants; who, after removing what prop- 
erty they could, fired the town and destroyed large amounts of 
goods and valuable property, which was an unnecessary destruc- 
tion of private property. 

Generals Santa Anna and Sesma arrived at San Filipe from 
Gonzales on April 7th. 

General Woll was left with a guard of cavalry to escort the 
baggage, ammunition and artillery, under Filisola, from the 
Colorado river. 

The Brazos being swollen, retarded the movements of the 
Mexican forces, and the opposition of Captain Baker at Sais 
Filipe prevented Santa Anna from crossing the river there. 

81 



On the 9tli of April he selected his choice troops and pro- 
ceeded down the Brazos to select a suitable crossing. On the 11th 
he arrived at the Old Fort and sent orders to Sesma and Filisola 
to join him there. On the 13th of April Sesma joined forces 
with Santa Anna at the Old Fort by order. N'ot waiting for 
further reinforcements, Santa Anna crossed the Brazos and 
marched on to Harrisburg, which place he reached on the after- 
noon of the 16th. Grenei-al Almonte, the aide-de-camp of Santa 
Anna gives in his diary a full account of the march, and a dis- 
position of the troops, and the record is given here: 

"Saturday 9th, at 5 a. m., we left San Filipe with the choice 
companies of Guerreros, Matamoras, Mexico and Toluca, and 
fifty cavalry of the regiment of Tampico and Dolores. At half- 
pafit twelve we arrived at the farm of Colls, and another mile 
beyond, in all six and a half leagues. Three Americans were 
seen, who took the road to Marion, or Orojimbo (Old Fort) and 
leading to Thompson's Ferrv. 

We found at the farm a. family from La Baca, who canie 
by the way of the Brazos. Various articles were also 
found. ^ * * 

Saturday, 10th, we remained at Coil's farm, waiting for our 
scouts. The farm is on the left bank of the river San Bernardo. 
At a hou^e seven leagues from the farm, on the road leading to 
the Colorado,, there were 500 fanegas of com and twenty bar- 
rels of sugar. In the afternoon the scouts returned and con- 
firmed the accounts we had received of the position of the enemy. 

At a quarter before four o'clock, p. m., we took up our 
march for Marion, or Old Fort, on the road from Brazoria. At 
half past five iti the morning we made a short halt at the farm 
of the Widow Powell, or rather at a stream called Gruajolota; 
from thence leaving the road from Brazoria on our right, we 
took the left, following the wagon tracks to Marion. 

We marched until half past nine at night, aiid made another 
short halt. ' ' Night dark.' At tw'o in the motning we commenced 

82 



the march ou foot, from the President down to the soldier, leav- 
ing the baggage and cavalry, for the purpose of surprising the 
enemy who defended the crossing place, before daylight. We 
did not succeed, as we found the distance double what we sup- 
posed it to be. Day broke upon us at a quarter of a league from 
the ferry and frustrated our plan. We then placed the men in 
ambush. The stream of Guajolota is seven and a half leagues 
from, Marion; road level with some miry places. 

Monday, 11th. Still in ambush. A negro passed at a 
sliort distance and was taken. He conducted us to the place 
he had crossed at, and having obtained a canoe, we crossed with- 
out being perceived, a little below the principal crossing place. 

In the meantime the cavalry arrived at Marion and took 
possession of the houses. The enemy retired on the other side 
and kept up a fire for a long time, until the Cazadores under 
command of Bringas crossed at the lower ford and, ascending 
the river, were about to take them in the rear, when they aban- 
doned Marion and we remained in possession of the ferry, one 
canoe and a flat boat. 

A courier was dispatched to General Sesma, with orders 
that he should come up with the whole division. The Oazadores 
slept on the other side of, the river. Rain during the night. 

Tuesday, 12th. Day clear and fine. We were occupied in 
procuring the canoes and going up in the fliat boats to Thomp- 
son's ferry.' A Mexican and a Prussian came in. The Mexican 
is the son of Delgado. In the afternoon the boat was injured. 
A 'courier came in from Guadalupe and from General Sesma. 
Wrote to Urrea at Matagorda. • • " "' 

Wednesday, 13th. The boat was repaired. The division " 
of General Sesma arrived. Many articles were found. Gen- 
eral Urrea and F. F. Fernandez were written to. Dispatches 
arrived from Urrea and Filisola. 

83 



Thursday, 14th. We crossed the river early 'with'oiil' beds 
only and provisions for the road. At three in the afternoon 
we started from Thompson's ferry. 

'Triday, 15th. At Harrisburg (in pencil). 

** Saturday, 16th. At Lynchburg (in pencil)." 

From that time on to the 20th, Santa Anna was evidently 
very much engaged in finding out the whereabouts of the enemy 
and devising some plans to entrap him, as his aide-de-camp was in 
the saddle the whole time, and a strong reconnoitering party 
kept on each flank of the division. Houston was watxihing his 
wily adversary at every point. 

The small force under Houston had a trying campaign. 
Houston sent admonitions to the settlements, warning them of 
the impending danger and threats to carry the war through the 
settlements if they did not rally to his aid. But in vain. Self- 
presei'vation seemed to be the ruling spirit among many of the 
colonists. Their bravest had joined Houston for weal or woe, 
and many had fallen with Fannin and Travis. The ordeal was 
a trying one, the crisis great, for the leader of the Texas forces 
to defend the country against such overwhelming odds under 
the victorious march of Santa Anna, 

Houston then had no idea of forcing a fight on the plains 
of Texas, west of the Trinity, for he ordered some volunteers 
from the United States marching to join him to halt and fortify 
on the Trinity, and ordered all the non-combatante fleeing from 
their more western homes to stay well in advance of his line of 
retreat on the way to the Sabine. 

General Houston divei^ed from his line of marcth east- 
ward, and diverged southward in the direction of Harrisburg, 
near which place he reached on the 18th of April. 

The most faithful and daring scout Houston had in his 
train was Erastus Smith, commonly called Deaf Smith (from 
some imperfection in his hearing), whose courage and daring 
had rendered most important service to the colonists. On the 

84 



mai'ch to Harrisburg Deaf Smith captured a Mexican courier 
carrying dispatches from Filisola to Santa Anna, showing the 
enemy's position, plans &nd movements, which information was 
very important to G-eneral Houston, and who acted promptly 
after receiving such advices. On the morning of the 19th he 
moved his troops down the right bank of the Buffalo bayou to 
within half a mile of its junction with the San Jacinto river; 
and took up a position in the spreading live oaks and timber that 
lined the bayou. In front of him lay the beautiful landscape of 
a Texas prairie, dotted with mots of timber. Here Houston 
was determined to fight Santa Anna before his reinforcements 
could come up, believing his time for action had arrived. He 
wrote the following note, suggestive of his plans, to Colonel H. 
Raguet, at Nacogdoches: 

Oamp at Harrisburg, 

19th April, 1836. 

"This morning we are in preparation to meet Santa Anna. 
It is the only chance of saving Texa^. From time to time I 
have looked for reinforce^ments in vain. The convention ad- 
journing to Harrisburg struck panic throughout the country. 
Texas could have started at least 4,000 men; we have only about 
700 to march with, besides the oamp guard. We go to conquer. 
It is wisdom growing out of necessity to meet and fight the 
enemy now. Every consideration enforces it No previous 
occasion would justifv it. The troops are in fine spirits, and 
now is the time for action. Adjutant General Wharton, In- 
spector General Hockley, Aide-de-camp Horton, Aides-de- 
camp W. H. Patton and Oollingworth, Volunteer Aids Perry 
and Perry, Major Cook, assistant inspector general, will be with 
me. We shall use our best efforts to fight the enemy to such 
advantage as will insure victory, though the odds are greatly 
against us. I leave the result in the hands of a wise God, and 
rely upon his providence. My country will do justice to those 

85 



who scrvie her. The rights for which we fight will he secured^ 

and Texas free. 

"SAM HOUSTON, 

" Commian d er-i n -Chief , 

"Colonel E-iisk is in the field. 

"HOUSTON.'^ 

Santa Anna, "with his forces, marched up from the south- 
west, and about 10 o'clock on the morning of the 20th, confronted 
the small Texan army, and within an hour gent a charge from a 
field piece whizzing through the ranks of Houston's sturdy fol- 
lowers, who lanswered the salute from two small six-pounders, 
the only cannon they had, which were the gift of the patriotic 
citizens of Cincinnati, Ohio, to the cause of Texas independence. 

The details of the battle on the 21st of April are so fully 
set forth by General Houston in his official report to the Presi- 
dent of the Republic of Texas, that we give it in extenso here. 

"To His Excellency, D. G. Burnet, President of the Republic 

of Texas: 

"Headquarters of the Army, 

"San Jacinto, April 25th, 1836. 

"Sir — I regi-et extremely that my position since the battle 
of the 21st has been sruch as to prevent my rendering you my 
official report of the same previous to this time. 

"I have the honor to inform you that on the evening of the 
18th inst., after a forced march of fifty-five miles, which was 
effected in two days and half, the army arrived opposite Har- 
risburg. That evening a courier of the enemy was taken from 
whom I learned that General Santa Anna, with one division 
of his choice troops, had marched in the direction of Lynch's 
ferry, on the San Jacinto, burning Harrisburg as he passed down. 
The army was ordered to be in readiness to march early on the 
next morning. The main body effected a crossing over Buffalo 
bayou, below Harrisburg, on the morning of the 19th, having 

86 



left the baggage, the sick and a sufficient c-amp guard in the 
rear. We continued to march throughout the night, making 
but one halt in the prairie for a short time, and without re- 
freshment. At daylight we resumed the line of march, and in 
a short distance our scouts encountered those of the enemy. 
And we received information that General Santa Anna was at 
New Washington, and would that day take up the line of march 
for Anahuac, crossing at Lynch's feiTy. 

"The Texan army halted within half a mile of the ferry in 
seme timber, and were engaged in slaughtering beeves, when 
the arm.y of Santa Anna was discovered to be approaching in 
battle array, having been encamped at Clopper's Point, eight 
miles below. Disposition was immediately made of our forces, 
and pi-eparations for his reception. 

"He took up a position with his infantry and artillery in the 
center, occupying an island of timber, his cavalry covering the 
left flank. The artillery, consisting of one double, fortified, 
medium, brass twelve-pounder, then opened on our encampment. 
The infantry, in column, advanced with the design of charging 
our lines, but were repulsed by a discharge of grape and canister 
from our artillery, consisting of two six-pounders. 

"The enemy had occupied a piece of timber within rifle 
shot of the left wing of our army, from which an occasional in- 
terchange of small arms took place between the troops, until 
the enemy withdrew to a position on the north bank of the San 
Jacinto, about three^uarters of a mile from our encampment, 
and commenced fortification. A short time before sunset our 
mounted men, about eighty-five in number, under the special 
command of Colonel Sherman, marched out for the purpose of 
reconnoitering the enemy. Whilst advancing they received a 
volley from the left of the enemy's infantry, and after a sharp 
encounter with their cavalry, in which ours acted extremely well, 
and performed some feats of daring chivalry, they retired in good 
order, having had two men severely wounded and several horses 

87 



killed. In the meantime the infantry, under the command 
of Lieutenant Colonel llillard, and Colonel Burleson's regiment, 
with the ai'tiliery, had marched out for the purpose of covering 
the retreat of the cavalry, if necessary, 

■"All then fell back in good order to our encampment 
about sunset, and remained without any ostensible action until 
the 21st, at half past three o'clock, taking the first refreshment 
which they had enjoyed for two days. 

"The enemy, in the meantime, extended the right flank of 
their infantry so as to occupy the extreme point of a skirt of 
timber on the bank of the San Jacinto, and secured thoir left 
by a fortification about five feet high, constructed of packs and 
baggage, leaving an opening in the center of the breastworks 
in which their artillery was placed, their cavalry upon their left 
wing. 

"About nine o'clock in the morning of the 21st the enemy 
were reinforced by 500 choice troops under the command of 
General Cos, increasing their effective force to upwards of 1,500 
men, whilst our aggregate force for the field numbered 783 men. 
At half past three o'clock in the evening I ordered the officers 
of the Texas army to parade their respective commands, having 
in the meantime ordered the bridge on the only road communi- 
cating with the Brazos, distant eight miles from our encamp- 
ment, to be destroyed, thus cutting off all possibility of escape. 
Our troops paraded with alacrity and spirit, and were anxious 
for the contest. Their conscious disparity in numbers seemed 
only to increase their enthusiasm and confidence, and heightened 
their anxiety for the conflict. 

"Our situation afforded me an opportunity of making the 
arrangements preparatory to the attack without exposing our 
designs to the enemy. 

"The first regiment, commanded by Colonel Burleson, was 
assigned the center. The Second regiment, under the com- 
mand of Colonel Sherman, formed the left wing of the army. 

88 



The artillery, under the special command of Colonel George 
W, Hockley, Inspector General, was placed on the right of the 
First regiment, and four companies of infantry under the com- 
mand of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Millard, sustained the ar- 
tillery upon the right. 

"Our cavalry, sixty one in number, comnaanded by Colonel 
Mirabeau B. Lamar (whose gallant and daring conduct on the 
previous day had attracted the admiration of his comrades, and 
called him to that station), placed on our extreme right, com- 
pleted our line. Our cavalry was first to dispatch to the front 
of the enemy's left, for the purpose of attracting their notice, 
whilst an extensive island of timber afforded us an opportunity 
of concentrating our forces and displaying from that point, 
agreeably to the previous design of the troops. 

"Every evolution was performed with alacrity, the whole 
advancing rapidly in line and through an open prairie, without 
any protection whatever for our men. The artillery advanced 
and took station within two hundred yards of the enemy's 
breastwork, and commenced an effective fire with grape and can- 
ister. Colonel Sherman, with his regiment, having com- 
menced the action upon our left wing, the whole line, at the 
center and on the right, advancing in double-quick time, raised 
the war cry, 'Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!' re- 
ceived the enemy's fire and advanced Avithin point blank shot 
before a piece was discharged from our lines. Our line ad- 
vanced without a halt until they were in possession of the wood- 
land and the enemy's breastwork ; the right wing of Burleson's 
and the left wing of Millard's taking possession of the breast- 
work, our artillery having gallantly charged up within 70 yards 
of the enemy's cannon, when it was taken by our troops. The 
conflict lasted about eighteen minutes from the time of close 
action until we were in possession of the enemy's encampment, 
taking one piece of cannon (loaded), four stand of colors, all 
their camp equipage, stores and baggage. Our cavalry had 

89 



charged and routed that of the enemy upon the right, and given 
pursuit to the fugitives, which did not cease until they arrived 
at the bridge which I have mentioned, Captain Karnes, always 
among the foremost in danger, conunanding the pursuers. 

"The conflict in the breastworks lasted but a few moments, 
many of the troops encountered hand to hand conflicts, and not 
having the advantage of bayonets on our side, our riflemen used 
their pieces as war clubs, breaking many of them off at the 
breech. The rout commenced at half past four, and the pursuit 
by the main army continued until twilight. 

"A guard was then left in charge of the enemy's encamp- 
ment, and our army returned with their dead and wounded. 
In the battle, our loss was two killed and twenty-three wounded, 
six of them mortally. The enemy's loss was 630 killed, among 
whom was one general officer, four colonels, two lieutenant col- 
onels, five captains, twelve lieutenants. Wounded, 208; of 
which were five colonels, three lieutenant colonels, two second 
lieutenant colonels, seven captains, one cadet. Prisoners, 730; 
President-General Santa Anna, General Cos, four colonels, aides 
to General Santa Anna, and the colonel of the Guerrero battalion, 
are included in the number. General Santa Anna was not taken 
until the 2 2d, and General Cos yesterday, very few having es- 
caped. About 600 muskets, 300 sabres and 200 pistols have 
been collected since the action. Several hundred mules and 
horses were taken, and nearly $12,000 in specie. 

"For several days previous to the action, our troops were 
engaged in forced marches, exposed to excessive rains, and the 
additional inconvenience of extremely bad roads, badly sup- 
plied with rations and clothing, yet, amid every difficulty they 
bore up with cheerfulness and fortitude, and performed their 
marches with spirit and alacrity. There was no murmuring. 
Previous to and during the action, my staff evinced every dispo- 
sition to be useful, and were actively engaged in their duties. 

90 



"In tlie conflict I am. assured tliat tliey demeaned themselves 
in such a manner as proved them worthy members of the Amay 
of San Jacinto. Ck>loneI T. J. Rusk, Secretary of War, was on 
the field. For weeks his services had been highly l>eneficial to 
the army. In the battle, he was on the left wing, where Colonel 
Sherman's command first encountered and drove in the enemy. 
He bore himself gallantly and continued his efforts and activity, 
remaining with the pursuers until resistance ceased. 

"I have the honor of transmitting herewith a list of the 
ofiioers and men who were engaged in the action, which I re- 
spectfully request may be published as an act of justice to the 
individuals. For the comntanding general to attempt discrim- 
ination as to the conduct of those commanded in the action, or 
those who were commanded, would be impossible. 

"Our success in the action is conclusive proof of their dar- 
ing intrepidity and courage; every officer and man proved him- 
self worthy of the cause in which he battled, while the triumph 
received a lustre from the humanity which characterized their 
conduct after victory, and richly entitles them to the admiration 
and gratitude of their general. 

"Nor should we withhold the tribute of our grateful thanks 
from that Being who rules the destinies of nations, and has in 
the time of greatest need enabled us to arrest a powerful invader 
whilst devastating our country. I have the honor to be, with 
high consideration, . ■ Your Obedient Servant, 

"SAM HOUSTON, 
"Commander-in-Chiief . " 

General Houston had previously informed the fleeing 
refugees, composed of long, moving ox-trains, horses, cattle, 
servants, children, old women and men, that he would send a 
messenger on swift horse at the close of the battle, and if fatal 
to the Texans, as it had been at the Alamo and Goliad, and all 
the defenders perish, then the refugees could push on to the Sa- 

91 



bine and take refuge under the protecting arm of the United 
States troops, who were then commanded by Major General 
Gaines, of the United States army, on the American frontier. 

Some twenty-five miles in the east of San Jacinto this army 
of poor unfortunates was encamped. The father was bowed 
down in grief, expecting to hear the sad news of his boy's an- 
nihilation; the mother moaning over the expectant loss of her 
son; the wife bathed in tears, weeping for him whose sun had 
perhaps gone down in the conflict; the wail of the children in 
their lament at being consigned to orphanage by the hand of a 
savage invader, made the scene piteous indeed. No hand was 
nigh to save but Him on high, who rules the tide and stays the 
hand of destruction. 

Four o'clock in the afternoon of that beautiful April day 
the guns had ceased to fire; the din of battle was over. Just 
half an hour at the Alamo in the last charge, and all was lost. 
A bad omen now over which to ponder. With hearts all beat- 
ing and heads bowed down in prayer for deliverance, the sun 
goes low in the horizon and reflects in beautiful rays over the 
broad prairies stretching to the west. In the distance a horseman 
is seen, coming as fast as the jaded horse could speed along. 
Alas, for hope ! All is gone. The groans deepen, despair sets 
in,' grief is lamentable. The wagons are hitched and the train 
ready to move. The servants are all at their posts. The tired 
man and jaded horse come closer. Only one hundred paces, 
and spurs are renewed to hasten the gallop. A wild yell goes 
up, and the hat waving over the rider's head speaks the glad 
tidings of victory. While the poor horse falls down to rest, the 
cavalier is embraced by old and young, maiden and mother, while 
he recounts the charge and victory, the utter rout and annihila- 
tion of the Dictator's army, the freedom of Texas, the birth of 
a new Republic, whose baptismal fires hath made her immortal. 

The picture was soou changed, the teams were loosened for 
the range, the loads unpacked; the servants rejoicing with their 

92 




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masters; the repast for the evening meal was enlarged.^ Joy 
was now unconfined. The old negro whose hair was frosted by 
many winters, seated himself on a camp stool under a spreading 
live oak tree, "the white folks' house," and with the fiddle and 
the bow made the welkin ring; while those who could shuffle 
the old Virgina reel kept mongrel time to the beautiful tune 
of "Old Rosin the Bow," and the faithful pony took his rest 
liard by and the warrior slept, dreaming of happy home, wife 
and children.. 

Like Miriam of old, when she led the dances of the Children 
of Israel after they had passed the Red Sea in their flight from 
bondage, towards .the happy shores, of Canaan ; and like the pa- 
triots of America giving way to merriment of the dance when 
Lord Comwallis surrendered his sword to Washington at York- 
town ; so here the scene was renewed of people cheering their 
deliverance from tyranny in the song and dance. 

The triumph of the Texans was so sudden and swift that it 
was quite a surprise to themselves. Houston had burnt the 
bridge, and all hope of escape was gone. It was a battle to the 
death, and well did the Texans raise the war cry of, "Remember 
the Alamo! Remember Gdliad!" for on the plains of San Jacinto 
they were determined to avenge their brothers' blood. Houston 
would have fought the enemy sooner, but realizing his great 
superior force and armament, he could not do so until that force 
was divided; and not till the capture of the courier bearing mes- 
sages to Santa Anna was Houston apprised of the division of 
the enemy's foi'ces. When this was ascertained, no time was 
lost In meeting the foe. 

Generals Santa Anna and Cos were taken captive on llie 
day after the battle. Santa Anna made his flight dressed in a 
common g-arb of a private soldier, hid in the grass on Buffalo 
bayou, and was not known to his captors till he was t^aken tx) 
(general Houston's headquarters, where, amid much agitation, 

93 



fear and trembling, ho announced himself as President of the 
Mexican J:lepublic, and Commander-in-Chief of the army. 

Houston had been wounded in the ankle, and was slum- 
bering upon a blanket at the foot of a live oak tree, with his 
saddle for a pillow, when Santa Anna approached and shook his 
hand cordially and pronounced his name. He requested some 
opium be given him, which he swallowed and was more com- 
pooed. 

He said to Houston: "You were bom of no ordinary destiny. 
You have conquered the N^apoleon of the West." 

The two commanders entered into colloquy respecting the 
massacre of the garrisons at the Alamo and Groliad, which Santa 
Anna defended. Houston gave him the use of his bed and he 
retired for the night — but not to sleep. His conscience kept him 
awake, for he feared the vengeance of the outraged Texans. 
Oeneral Houston had to exert extraordinary influence over his 
men to save the life of his captor, Vi^hom he desired to use as an 
instrument in securing the absolute freedom of Texas and freeing 
the soil of Mexican troops, large bodies of which were in close 
proximity to the Texan army; and after due deliberation, the 
two commanders-in-chief agreed upon terms of capitulation, 
which are here given in full: 

"Articles of an agreeiment made between His Excellency, 
the general-in-chief of the army of operations, President of the 
Mexican Republic, Don Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, for one 
party; and His Excellency, the President of the Republic of 
Texas, Mr. David G, Burnet, for the other party: 

Article 1. General Antonio I^opez de Santa Anna agrees 
not to take up arms, nor to influence their bein^ taken up, 
against the people of Texas during the actual strife of inde- 
pendenca 

Art. 2. Hostilities shall immediately cease, by sea and land, 
between the Mexican and Texan troops. - 

94 



Art. 3, The Mexican troops shall evacuate the territory 
of Texas, passing to the other side of the Rio Grande del Norte. 

Art. 4. The Mexican army, in its retreat, shall not make 
use of the property of an" person without their consent and just 
indemnification, taking- articles only necessary for their sub- 
sistence when the owners should not be present; and sending to 
the general of the Texas army or to the commissioners for the 
arrangement of such matters ; advice of the value of the property 
consumed, the place where taken and the name of the owner, 
should it be known. 

Art. 5. That all private property, including cattle, horses, 
negro slaves, or persons contracted, of whatsoever denomination, 
which may have been taken by a part of the Mexican army, or 
which should have taken refuge in said army from the com- 
mencement of the last invasion, shall be returned to the com- 
mander of the Texas forces, or to the persons that should be 
named by the Grovernment of Texas, in order to receive it. 

Art. 6. The troops of both belligerent armies shall not be 
placed in contact, and for this end the Texas general shall take 
care that between the two encampments a distance shall inter- 
vene of five leagues at least. 

Art. 7. The Mexican army shall not delay any more in their 
march than is necessary to take off their hospitals, trains, etc., 
and pass the rivers, considering as an infraction of this agree- 
ment the delay which, without just motives, should be noted. 

Art. 8. This agreement shall be forwarded by speedy ex- 
press to Vincente Filisola, general of division, and to General T, 
J. Rusk, commander of the Army of Texas, that they may 
remain bound as far as appertains to them, and being mutually 
agreed, may arrange the speedy and due execution of the stipu- 
lations. 

Art. 9. That all the Texan prisoners at this time in the 
power of the Mexican army, or in that of any of the authorities 
of the Government of Mexico, be immediately placed at liberty, 

95 



and passports given to them so that they may return to their 
homes. It being the duty of the Government of Texas also to 
place at liberty a corresponding number of Mexican prisoners, 
of the same rank and station, and to treat the remainder of said 
Mexican prisoners who may remain in the power of the Gov- 
ernment of Texas vsath all due humanity, charging the Govern- 
ment of Mexico for the expenses caused in their behalf, when 
any extra convenience should be afforded them. 

Art. 10. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna shall be 
sent to A'' era Cruz as soon as may be thought proper, and for its 
fulfillment and consequent effects the contracting parties sign 
it by duplicate in the port of Velasco, on the 14th of May, 1836. 

ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA, 
DAVID G. BURNET, 
J. COLLINSWOKTH, Secretary of State. 
BAILEY HARDEMAN, Secretary of Treas. 
P. W. GRAYSON, Attorney General. 

This treaty was submitted to General Filisola on the 26th of 
May, and ratified by him. There was a secret treaty al^o signed 
or. the 14th of May, by the same contracting parties, on amity 
and commerce: That the Texan territory should not extend be- 
yond the Rio Grande; that the immediate embarkation of Santa 
Anna for Vera Cruz should be provided for, as "His prompt re- 
turn being indispensable for the purpose of effecting his en- 
gagements." 

Santa Anna's release was much delayed. Conflicting in- 
terests and feelings arose over his release. Many thought he 
ought to be tried by court martial ar^d shot, as outraging every 
principle of civilized warfare. Among those of such belief was 
the formidable Lamar, who was chosen Secretary of War. He 
regarded Santa Anna more as an apprehended murderer than 
a prisoner of war. He reminded the government of the char- 



acter and nobility of those tlioy were' called on to avenge. They 
were no mercenary soldiers. He knew many of them personally. 
He, Fannin and Ward were from the same state (Georgia). He 
said: "Never did the broad eye of day look upon a fouler mur- 
der; never were a better or a braver people sacrificed to a tyrant's 
ferocity. The most of them were youthful heroes." 

"I have always thought, and still believe, that our sole 
reliance should be upon our swords, and not upon the faith of 
Santa Anna. If the armies now on the retreat shall dare a 
countermarch, there will not be in the next battle a Mexican 
left, to tell the tale of their defeat; and if another expedition 
against us shall be gotten up in the fall or the spring, there will 
come into our country such a cavalcade of heroes as will make 
their chivalry skip. The very first army which turns its face to 
the east will awaken a war which will move onward and onward 
over the broad prairies of the west, knowing no termination until 
it reaches the walls of Mexico, where we shall plant the standard 
of the single star, and send forth our decrees in the voice of our 
artillery." 

Finally Santa Anna was, on the 18th of December, 1836, 
sent to Washington, D. C, to confer with the Department of 
State, and General Jackson finally sent him by steamer to Vera 
Cruz, Mexico. When he was leaving Texas he issued the fol- 
lowing address to the Texan army: 

"My Friends — I have been a witness of your courage in the 
field of battle, and know you to be generous. Rely with con- 
fidence on my sincerity, and you shall never have cause to regret 
the kindness shown me. In returning to my native land, I beg 
you to receive the sincere thanks of your grateful friend. Fare- 
well. 

ANT. LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA." 



97 



The struggle for Texan independence ended with the bat- 
tle of San Jacinto. Even had the Mexicans won that field, Gen- 
eral Filisola was impressed that the Mexican army would have 
been very little improved. Marching across wild prairies, deep 
streams in to the enemy's country, fast being populated by vol- 
unteer forces from the old states, would soon have engulfed the 
army into annihilation. . 

We have brought the reader briefly over the troublesome 
times of Texas, and leave her on the plain of peace, where we 
hope she will always dwell among the nations of the earth. 
What she won by the victory of arms is hers. Her advancement 
in times of peace has been no less chivalrous than in war. And 
to follow the people of the Lone Star in her fields of peace, and 
legal and literary attainments, we must regale the reader and the 
student to the civil history of the state. But an area of more 
than two hundred and sixty-five thousand square miles, popu- 
lated by over 3,000,000 of people, is no small advancement in 
sixty years. 



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i,^ 



SURRENDER OF SANTA ANNA 



The Day After the Batti^e of San Jacinto, April 22, 1836. 



Names of those present when Santa Anna was brought be- 
fore the Commander-in-Chief of the Texans, General Sam. 
Houston, as shown in illustration : 



1. 


General Sam. Houston. 


18. 


Thomas Monroe Hardeman, 


2. 


General Santa Anna. 


19. 


S. Bostic. 


3. 


Thomas J. Rusk. 


20. 


McPadden. 


4. 


Mirabeau B. Lamar. 


21. 


Aaron Burleson. 


6. 


Chaddock. 


22. 


W. Anderson. 


6. 


Ben. McCulloch. 


23. 


J. M. Hill. 


7. 


McMannus. 


24. 


Bnntin. 


8. 


Col. Almonte. 


26. 


Whi taker. 


9. 


Gen. Edward Burleson. 


26. 


Clemens. 


10. 


Col. Wharton. 


27. 


John M. Swisher. 


11. 


Col. Sydney Sherman. 


28. 


"Deal" Smith. 


12. 


Joel W. Robison. 


29. 


Sterling Robertson. 


13. 


Walter P. Lane. 


30. 


Surgeon Gen. Ewing.. 


14. 


Sylvester. 


31. 


Geo. Nail. 


15. 


Jesse Billingsly. 


32. 


Perry. 


16. 


Tom. Green. 


33. 


Hobson. 


17. 


Gen. Alford. 


34. 


M. A. Bryan. 



99 



APPENDIX. 



San Antonio is situated about the center of Bexar County, Texas, 
on lands granted by the King of Spain to the inhabitants thereof. It 
has now thirty-six square miles within the corporate limits. Has a 
population of 75,000, 12,000 registered voters and over 12,000 children 
enrolled in the public schools. 

It has the finest system of artesan. water supply in the world: the 
best regulated sewer and street railroad systems in America. 

The picturesque San Pedro springs flow from the rocks near "Laurel 
Heights," about one mile from the main plaza. The spreading forest 
of native trees, with the meandering sweep of the spatkling waters, 
give to the eye the most beautiful scenery that can be sketched on 
landscape or painted in the human mind. 

The beautiful San Antonio river comes gushing out of the rocks 
a,t the foot hills, three miles, north of main plaza, and meanders 
amid spreading foliage of stately trees and bending bananas and tropical 
growth through the center of the city, a beautiful stream of clear 
water, on its way to the gulf. This stream, with San Pedro creek, 
furnishes water for the irrigating ditches that supply the fields and 
gardens below. 

Nineteen iron bridges span this river on as many streets. The city 
has the finest public hall in the South and most substantial school 
buildings. 

The Court house in Bexar County, situated on the main plaza, is a 
model of beauty and architectural display. 

From the foot hills on the north, stretching to the gulf, one hundred 
and fifty miles, is the rich, undulating, alluvial lands, which make this 
section an earthly paradise for man, as the soil is rich and productive 
for all classes of agriculture, farm, garden and orchard. It is the 
stockman's retreat, for in this land is the nursery of all kinds of stock 
that live on the range without further feed. The climate is mild and 
temperate, always fanned by the gentle breezes tha:t flow from the 
gulf stream. ' 

The fame of San Antonio as a health resort for all classes of disease 
is proverbial and world wide. Her population is cosmopolitan in the 
extreme. More than twenty different nationalities are found on the 
streets. 

Being one hundred and fifty miles from the Mexican border, it has 
the largest military post in the United States, Fort Sam Houston, which 
is a model of beauty and comfort. Thus surrounded and situated, San 
Antonio is bound to be the queen city of the Southwest, with her 
advantages fully developed. 

100 



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